The Golden Goddess
by Frozen Twins
Summary: Digimon. Monsters from another world. Rika and Renamon end up landing in India after a fight with two powerful megas. It is here she stays to look for Guilmon, but the power of a Diety is sought after by all humans.
1. Chapter 1 A Heroines Innocence

The Golden Goddess

Chapter 1

A Heroines Innocence

The Yellow puppet barked in Jeri's face. "Bad Jeri, bad." It spoke out, "Jeri allowed Guilmon to be kidnapped. Jeri did it, if Jeri didn't require Takato walk her home, Guilmon would still be here, and Suzie wouldn't be dead. Jeri allowed this to happen, Jeri was scared of the dark to much, so Jeri had Takato walk her home. It was all Jeri fault. Yep, Jeri's fault that Mr. Katou is dead..." the sentence trailed off.

That name, Mr. Katou it stung her to the core. Her father was dead because she wasn't strong enough. The last person left in her life that loved her beyond friendship. First her Mother, then Leomon and now her father. "Jeri's fault," the puppet said less accusingly, "Jeri's fault that she couldn't protect Guilmon. Jeri's fault that she couldn't protect Suzie, Jeri's fault that her father died because of her."

The word father awoke something in Jeri's brain and she stared at the yellow sock puppet in horror. "No, it's not. It's not my fault. I didn't do that. It's not my fault!" she screamed at her sock puppet before standing up and grabbing it forcefully off her arm, throwing it to the ground.

Her eyes felt a fury and anger at the yellow sock that laid on the ground, but her mind fixated upon something else. It was right. The sock was right and it didn't matter how much she denied or ranted against what it said. It was her fault. She had been the cause of so much sorrow and pain.

Jeri sat down on the bench in cool night and bawled into her hands, the stars offering no help to the poor girl, there light having no affect. The park bench was cold and hard, holding no amount of peace to the young brown haired girl. Even the light from the lampost seemed to shy away from the poor girl, giving her only consolidation in the shadows of the night.

Watching her was a man of thirty-three years of age. His hair was black as was the shirt he wore. His shorts were a dark blue with two large pockets on either side of them. The cool wind of the night caused his hair to raise on his legs to keep them warm. It had no affect on the mans serene expression, it was calm and watchful. His hair hair hung over his eyes giving him a relaxed look as he viewed the girl.

From the shadows, two digimon watched the scene. They spoke, but at such a low tone that the human ear could not hear it.

Above in the sky, a shadow flew across the moon, casting a shadow over the brown haired girl.

-

-

-

Yamaki stood on top of Hypnos, able to see all that was the city, the cool and fresh air relaxed him. It had been three days since he spoke for the first time face to face with one of Hypnos contributers. Taichi Yagami, a man of a strange countenance and an even stranger history. He was far more capable then what he seemed, and Yamaki would even go as far to say that he knew more about what was happening at Hypnos then he let on. He had a PhD in Social Psychology and within ten minutes Yamaki had been amazed at him.

Still, there was something uncanny about him. Something that Yamaki didn't trust, and it wasn't the way he had studied Riley and Tally. Perhaps it was the way he held himself, the way he always seemed have a double meaning to his words, saying something and meaning something completely else.

The cold wind stirred upon Mihiramon and WarGrowlmon's battlesite, but Yamaki paid no mind, but a thought did come to him. The reason he didn't trust Taichi is because he had to trust him. He couldn't afford not to. Suzie and Lopmon had been kidnapped by the Chinese, Guilmon was the sovereigns knew where and Ryo was the only Tamer who wasn't having a mental breakdown or injured big time who could reach the Mega Level.

Rika and Renamon had been damaged severely, but were healing surprisingly fast. After only a six days, Rika had gone from Critical condition to being able to walk around with nothing but a broken arm. Takato was mourning over the loss of Guilmon and Henry had closed himself up because of the death of his sister.

The wind blew, Yamaki's coat did nothing to protect against the wind. It had gotten colder since that day, the steady reminder that winter was coming, and if this was any indication, it was going to be a cold one. Yamaki could see the park, and his thoughts drifted to this period of time two years ago, when he met Mr. Wong in the park, then the digital World took Suzie.

Yet again, Suzie had been taken, but this time for good. Xian Wong, Henry's uncle. Yamaki had run in with him in the past, and he was not one to die so easily. Still, it was a hard thing to think that anyone could have survived that beast. That Dragon, the Demon of Guilmon. Megidramon. According to Henry, who was the only one conscious when Hypnos had raided the Yakuza base, Jeri had screamed for revenge, and Guilmon and Takato held their heads in a cry of pain. Takato fainted and Guilmon digivolved into what the Internet had classified as Redramon.

Megidramon then proceeded to fly towards the car that the Chinese who had kidnapped Suzie and Lopmon were in. He destroyed the car completely and killed everyone in it. Then flew off. Every nation in the world tracked him, countries that he flew overhead attacked him with planes and missiles. Nothing seemed to affect him, then he just disappeared completely somewhere in India. Now every country of power had some sort of combat unit looking for him.

Yamaki picked up his phone as his Butterfly ring tone (courtesy of Riley, he tried to change it several times, and even though he could program Yuggoth, cell phones ring tones somehow eluded him. It just wasn't worth the time to him) called out. "Yeah."

"Sir. We've found a piece of code that you may want to look at it." Riley spoked flatly over the phone.

"What do we have?" Yamaki asked as he walked back towards the doorway off the rooftop.

"You'll have to see for yourself. I'm not sure I even comprehend it completely." Riley spoke.

Yamaki placed his hand on the door and opened it. "Yeah! Somebody to play with me!" Calumon shouted as he jumped onto Yamaki's face, startling the Hypnos Director so bad that he fell onto his rear end, and dropping his phone. He blinked as Calumon dropped onto his lap. "Hey, you look funny without your glasses." Calumon told him, before peering his head around speculatively. "There they are!" Calumon said gleefully, floating over to them.

"Sir, Sir, Are you alright?" Riley's voice came worried over the phone. Yamaki picked up his phone, "Yeah, I'm alright." he told her in a slightly disgruntled voice, looking over at Calumon. The little digimon grabbed the glasses.

"You need to be more careful Mr. Blackthing. You could have been stepped on." He said sounding all important and powerful. Calumon put on the glasses, before looking over to Yamaki, and floating over to his face. "No wonder you just stand around all day. These things make it so hard to see."

Yamaki heard Riley's laugh as she heard Calumon's voice and had pieced together what had happened. "Riley?" Yamaki spoke almost lovingly.

"Yes?"

"You will forget everything you just heard."

"Yes sir!" She spoke, unable to contain her laughter.

Calumon just looked at Yamaki strangely, glancing back between his face and the phone. "Huh?"

-

-

-

The young rookie made sure that his tamer was asleep, before lifting the covers and tucking him in. He sat back a moment, just taking in his tamer's face, determined never to forget it. He sighed as he looked over at the clock. It was only eight, meaning that Renamon would still be up. He hopped up onto the chair, and then onto the desk, making sure that nothing fell off. He opened the window silently.

His tamer stirred as the cold air blew in, but the Digimon closed the window, but cringed when he crashed it slightly against the edge. Takato simply turned over in his sleep, and the purple digimon sighed.

He walked to the back of the house, were he could land on the ground without making too much noise. His landing wasn't as soft as he would have liked it to be, but no one noticed, the digimon land in the back alleyway. He walked out into the street, and took a nice jog down it. Many people noticed him, but he paid no mind to their startled gasps, warm smiles and confused looks. He did however pick up his pace.

His small body brushed quickly through the night, the moon leaving a gleam off his soft fur. The lampposts leaving a threatening shadow in his wake. His breath acted as constant noise to the pitter patter of his feet. His gem implaced on top of his head reflected the lights of the stars, giving his face a strange warm glow to it.

His name was Dorumon or the Digital OR Unknown MONster. He was slightly smaller then Guilmon and had been created after Guilmon had flown off as Megidramon. Like Guilmon, he had been born in his Rookie state, unlike Guilmon, he was fully aware of exactly what was going on. He knew that his tamer was still in pain, and he tried to do everything he could, but he barely knew his tamer, and from Guilmon's description, there's no way he could ever be like him. He wasn't super powerful or wise or playful. He preferred to think and enjoyed being on his own occasionally. It was mostly because he always felt out of place. He was just a replacement, a sub. He wasn't of the quality of any of the Digimon and he and his tamer didn't have the bond that Takato had had with Guilmon.

He was the one everyone would study, judging him, evaluating him. It seemed that he couldn't go an hour without either Takato's parents or friends making some comment about Guilmon. He hated that name, every time he heard it, his guilt overwhelmed him, he couldn't stand it. On top of that he hated himself for hating Guilmon.

He found himself staring at the gate of Rika's house. He just sat there, unsure of what to do. _What am I doing here__? __ I should be at home, watching over Takato, being there for him. Not here. He needs me more then I need training... but_

The argument raged through his head. He lifted his small paw to knock on the door, then brought back down again. _ I'm a fool _He thought to himself.

"Why hello there." Came a calm voice.

Dorumon jumped, so startled out of his thoughts that fear washed over his entire body. "I, I, I'm sorry... mam," Dorumon stammered out.

"Oh, Don't be." Rika's grandma said kindly, "You did nothing wrong. Now why don't you come in and enjoy yourself." She said opening up the gate.

Dorumon wanted to desperately say no, to run for all he was worth back to the bakery, but his manners kept him from doing that. "Tha... Thank you." He barely whispered, before walking in.

"So tell me. You must be Dorumon, the new guardian of Takato's." Rika's grandmother walked into the house, and the purple digimon followed. "Do you stop by here often?"

Dorumon looked at her confused, "Only twice..." Dorumon left his sentence hanging, unsure what to call her.

"Well, do stop by more often. We always have room for you guardians who protect our children."

"Hey Dorumon." Rika said coming into the main hallway, "And grandma, they're not Guardians, they're Digimon."

Seiko smiled at her offspring, "Perhaps, they seem an awful lot like familiars. It's no surprise that a Kitsune is your protector, it fits you nicely."

Renamon phased into view to look at Rika's grandma, then shrugged. _ Your Grandma is perhaps the only one who could get away with calling me that._ She sent as a mental thought to Rika. She was about to say something, when she noticed a digimon.

"Rika, a Digimon just arrived..." Renamon said shortly.

"Never a dull day around here." Rika muttered.

"And it's powerful, Rika." Renamon said, her fur standing on end. "Mega level, easily."

Rika glared at her partner, her relaxed demeanor suddenly changed. "Dorumon, your coming with us. Grandma?"

"Yes, yes. I'll call everyone." Seiko told her, "You just be careful, agreed."

Rika gave her Grandma a hug, "Deal." Rika ran back into her room and grabbed her D-Arc and cards. Renamon, Dorumon and Seiko followed behind.

Renamon relaxed into a fighters stance as Rika came out with her coat on. "Ready?"

"Always." Renamon said smilingly.

**Biomerge DigiEvolution **

Dorumon stared in awe as the two combined to form Sakuyamon, and couldn't help but be full of energy and hope. _ I wonder what my Biomerge Digievolution will be. I doubt it will be anything as cool as Sakuyamon or Gallentmon, but it will still be awesome to fight with Takato personally. Then again, I would probably just let Takato down, I could never be even close to being that powerful._

Seiko stared at her daughter in the golden armor. "Rika, your mother tried to cancel this latest trip. She really did. The company threatened to cancel her contract Rika. She really did try to be here for you."

"I know, Grandma." Rika said from inside Sakuyamon. Rika felt disappointment well up inside of her, but she pushed it down. She didn't have time for that right now. "Come on Dorumon." Sakuyamon said, picking up the small digimon.

"Don't forget to call Gogglehead and the others." Sakuyamon told Seiko.

Rika's grandma nodded her head, "I won't." She then proceeded to watch Sakuyamon take off into the cold clear night. She walked over the phone and dialed in the Matsuki Bakery. "Hello? Is Takato there?"

Sakuyamon flew quietly carrying the young digimon. Dorumon took in the sights and sounds of the city while Rika felt a trickle of fear go through her. She could feel this digimon's power, it was strong beyond anything she had felt up to that point. Even in the Digital World, the Sovereigns never emitted this kind of Aura of strength.

Sakuyamon saw the digimon after a three minute flight. She quickly placed Dorumon on the Ground a flew up so she was behind the digimon.

He was a humanoid digimon with Blue Chrome Digizoid covering his body. On his side he held a chain gun on his arm that was relaxed. His feet floated effortlessly in the air. His back was occupied with two objects. On the left was a long Beam cannon. On the right was a little girl. "I've met a lot of rogue digimon, but you're the first I've found to kidnap kids." Sakuyamon growled out angerily.

The Digimon turned around for a complete one eighty. He stared at the Digimon that had interrupted his gaze of the moon. "Rika." he said in a heavy voice that seemed to echo itself. Sakuyamon made no move, but simply smiled.

The wolf gazed at her, before three fast objects caught his eye. Three spirit foxes, each of a different color were streaking towards him at high speeds. "Nein!" he cried, twisting in mid air to avoid the first two, but the third one streaked across his back, knocking the human girl off him.

Rika didn't hesitate, she instantly landed on her knees in her sphere and started muttering a prayer in an unknown language. A Sphere similar to the one Taomon used surround itself around the falling girl and set her on the ground gently.

MetalGarurumon X watched this. He met Sakuyamon's gaze as his body was outlined in the moon behind him. "MegaGargomon. The Most Fire Power. Gallentmon. The Strongest. Justimon. The Most Skilled. Sakuyamon..." He left the word trailing for a moment, picking his choice of words carefully. "The Most Versatile. It is an honor to duel you."

"I don't take any praise from digimon who have things against humans." Sakuyamon growled, before bringing her staff in front of her.

MetalGarurumon made a routine check of all his gear. He was silent. It didn't irk Rika though, what irked her was how relaxed his body was, like she wasn't a threat. She was a mere fly that wasn't going to be worth fighting. She completely disregarded her plan to stall until the others got here.

"Your mine!" She shouted as she charged forward slamming her staff down into the Mega digimon. MetalGarurumon brought up his chain gun and the two weapons caused a stale mate as MetalGarurumon had to use his other hand to support his chain gun from the females strong attack.

MetalGarurumon grinned playfully, "Rookie." he taunted her as his right missile racked open up.

"You're the rookie." Sakuyamon muttered as MetalGarurumon's missiles exploded in their container when the slammed up against a small shield Rika had prayed for. The explosion was followed up by Sakuyamon exerting an extra amount of force into her staff. MetalGarurumon was thrown off balance and towards the ground from the twin attacks.

MetalGarurumon righted himself after falling a few hundred feet, he flew at an angle as to throw a now following Sakuyamon. He glanced back and griminaced. _She's to close._

_I know. We can't win like this._

_Then lets hope we can't get some distance between us and her. _

"Rika," Renamon spoke to her tamer, "His flight pattern, it's one of retreat."

"He definitely doesn't have an ego so small that one mistake on his side is going to cause him to flee." Rika noted. "So what's he up too?"

"His weapons are missiles. Is he trying to get away from humans as to not harm them?" Renamon posed.

"No, he kidnapped a human girl. Remember." Rika explained to her partner. "The only other option?"

"A trap." Renamon spoke. "Rika?" she asked, not needing to say more. This Digimon was leading them away from any back up or support and more then likely to his own support.

"We try and take him down now and he'll gain enough distance that we won't be able to track him, leaving us open to an even worst situation." Rika told her partner.

"Then we pray."

"Yes. We pray." Rika was contemplative, "He's picking up speed. Are you ready to do this?"

"Always!"

-

-

-

Sequel to A Heroines Innocence


	2. Chapter 2 Yamato and Sigma

The Golden Goddess

Yamato and Sigma

Chapter 2

Henry jumped off of Rapidmon's back and hit the ground running towards Dorumon. "Henry," Rapidmon spoke, "there's residue of some Mega level attacks, but nothing else is here."

"Can you pick up Rika's trail?" Henry asked the rabbit floating beside him as he ran.

"No, there's nothing for me to pick up," Rapidmon piped up. "Not even Rika's cold anger." he joked.

Dorumon turned around from leaning over the girl Sakuyamon had set down. He saw Henry and Rapidmon, "Henry, Rapidmon!" he called out, running towards them. They slowed down until they all came to a halt. "Dorumon, what happened?" Henry asked.

"Well, Rika went up to fight this really powerful digimon," Dorumon started to speak, "and then these foxes came and a barrier appeared around that girl. She floated to the ground, then they fought a little bit before the other digimon took off and Rika and Renamon followed him." Dorumon spoke very quickly and timidly.

"Hey, Momenti, buddy, not much you could do," Rapidmon piped up.

Henry looked at Dorumon, piecing together what he said. "So they took off. Can you describe the digimon she was fighting to me?"

Dorumon thought for a moment, "Well, it was a mega, and it looked like a wolf."

"MetalGarurumon?" Henry asked.

"Umm, I…I don't know," Dorumon admitted sheepishly, "I…am unfamiliar with that digimon." Henry cursed himself for forgetting that Dorumon was only a week old, and yet, it seemed as if he had been a part of the group forever.

He flipped through his deck before pulling out a card and showing it to timid digimon. "Like this?"

Dorumon looked at the card, before shaking his head, "No... it was anthropomorphic."

"Antropa-wha???" Rapidmon spoke completely confused.

"Humanoid," Henry told him, "but MirageGaogamon isn't so powerful to make Rika worry. Rapidmon, you have any ideas?"

"Well, he fled, so he can't have been that strong, but what would interest a Mega digimon in this world, especially now?" Rapidmon asked, "I mean no offense, but any Mega with common sense would be in the Digital World to either carve out a name for themselves or to help repair it. Not much reason to come to the real world."

_Unless of course, Megidramon brought him here. There would be no other logical explanation, not so soon after the incident._ Henry's thoughts kept him occupied, but Dorumon cocked his head to look around the green color-based kid.

"Takato!" Dorumon yipped happily as he ran to greet him.

"Dorumon!" Takato quickly reached down and hugged his digimon on the cold, clear night.

"Takato?" Dorumon asked, "You're crying. Are you all right?" Dorumon was very perplexed.

"I'm fine, Dorumon." Takato said, wiping away his tears on Dorumon's fur. _I'm just glad that you're here._

Dorumon's eyes cast down and his grip slackened. _I'm such a fool. Why did I leave, it's hard enough for Takato to have lost Guilmon, and he needs a replacement. Why am I so selfish? Takato's the one who needs help right now, not me. I need to stop worrying about myself and comfort Takato...but how? I'm barely a week old and know nothing of this world or how humans or even digimon react. Every time I try to learn, I have to leave Takato behind. What am I supposed to do? I'm an idiot. The answers so simple and easy that anybody should know it. Takato needs me and that's why I was created, to ease the void of Guilmon._

"Takato, Dorumon! Come quick, it's Suzie!" Rapidmon told them.

"Huh?" Takato said curiously, getting up from his kneeling position to go over and look at the girl Rika had saved.

Henry was holding her in his arms lovingly giving support to her head as she lay unconscious. "This is Suzie?" Dorumon asked as he walked over. He had studied the girl for the two minutes between when Sakuyamon and the other digimon had left sight and Henry had showed up on Rapidmon's back. "I thought she was gone?"

"Shut Up!" Henry screamed at him. "She's here, this is her. She's alive!" Tears torrented down Henry's face. "This is all a dream, it has to be. She's dead, but she's here, alive..." Henry muttered quietly as he brushed back Suzie's bangs.

"Henry," Takato said. The blue haired kid looked up for Takato to slam his fist into Henry's cheek. Henry lay on the concrete with a look of shock on his face, Suzie's body slumped to the ground. Dorumon and Rapidmon looked at the Gogglehead with amazement. Rapidmon's body became defensively rigid. "Sorry, but Rika wasn't here to do that," Takato told him, shaking his hand, "You need to get a grip. Suzie's alive and she's right in front of you, but we need to get her to a hospital now. We can leave all of the questions for another time. Right now we need to get her to a hospital."

Henry looked at the Gogglehead for a minute in stunned silence. A small smile crept to his lips. "Thanks, Takato," he muttered.

Takato gave him weak smile. "Yeah... sorry..."

Henry shook his head at the goggle-toting tamer before scooping Suzie up into his arms. "Rapidmon."

"Rapidmon airline at your service. All first class customers aboard," he said picking up Henry by the waist. "You gonna grab coach, you two?" Rapidmon asked Dorumon and Takato. Takato shook his head.

"No thanks, I'm really tired, but give me an update tomorrow morning," Takato said as he yawned.

"No problem!" Rapidmon said with his usual energy, "Suzie will probably get to call you herself."

"Yeah," Takato said. "Now get going. You need to get her to the hospital."

Henry nodded, and he and Rapidmon took off.

-

-

-

"Any changes, Riley?" Yamaki asked.

"None sir, they are traveling over India now however," Riley spoke concerning Rika and the Mega level digimon she was chasing.

"Get the India Prime Minster on the phone," Yamaki said coldly.

"On it," Tally's voice echoed.

Yamaki clicked his lighter. The digimon had showed up in the real world without any trace from the digital world. He came cold. "Riley, when was the last time a digimon showed up cold?" he asked up to her.

"Checking sir," Riley's microphone enhanced her voice as she clicked at her keyboard, "Parasimon, sir, and Mihairamon before that. Guilmon, Renamon and Terriermon are the only other ones."

"Tamers or gates that were opened from this world." Dr. Kido, the DPP's Representative with Hypnos. Taichi Yagami, the leader of the DPP, had asked Yamaki if he would mind if he sent over some expertise to look at the data they had received from the Yakuza. Yamaki really couldn't refuse, only for the fact that Yagami was the biggest sponsor of Hypnos. He would have liked to say no, but it had turned out fairly well. Jyou Kido was the local Digimon anatomy expert in DPP, and he had been very respectful of Yamaki and Hypnos policies. It almost irked Yamaki that he was so nice.

"No sign of a gate being opened from the human world though," Yamaki spoke. He looked over at Doctor Kido. "Is there anybody other then Taichi in your organization that have digimon?"

"Yeah," Dr. Kido said, "There's twenty six in all, ten residing in Japan. Only twelve can go Mega though," he clarified for him. "However, all of them can cloak themselves against your Radars. I don't understand why any of them would come to Japan."

"Unless they were trying to attract the tamers," Yamaki spoke coldly.

Jyou's eyes widened in shock, "They wouldn't... yeah... they would," Jyou admitted to himself.

"Do you have any information about who would be foolhardy enough to try and fight the Tamers?" Yamaki clicked his lighter a little more forcefully.

"I could give you some names, but I don't know who." Jyou explained. "There's Seiga, from India, who's been pretty blatant about the rashness of the Tamers and how they've made digimon so public. Yagean, from Germany, has had a pretty heavy rivalry with Taichi and might be trying to get a blow against him. John, from America, is pretty hot headed and would definitely pull a stunt like this just to prove that he's stronger than 14 year old kids. It could be Angel (An -heel) from Mexico looking to get the Tamers to help him with something."

"So to clear things up, you have no idea," Yamaki grimaced. "Which one would flee?"

Jyou leaned up against the wall "Well, Seiga definitely would not run. Neither would John, but Yagean and Angel might." Jyou stared at the ceiling, "Hard to say which one's stronger though. You're looking at either Seraphimon or MetalGarurumon X."

"Sir, they've vanished," Tally's voice of concern came solid against Yamaki's ears.

"What do you mean vanished? Try a pinpoint search. See if you can't find Renamon or something," Yamaki commanded.

"I've already tried, sir," Tally spoke frantically, "I've even scanned the area with Juggernaut, nothing."

"Damn it," Yamaki swore. The one use that they had with from Juggernaut was the ability to locate any large amounts of data within a certain area. It was not useful for looking in cities, but still was very useful. If it couldn't find them, then nothing could.

"Sir, the Indian Prime Minister would like to know what you want," Riley said.

Yamaki glared up at her through his glasses. "Tell him I need a conference with him tomorrow."

"Yes sir."

"Has something happened?" Calumon asked, sitting on the computer as he looked up at Yamaki.

Yamaki glanced at the creampuff and a small smile appeared on his face as he looked at the small, white digimon, even with his ears in the sad position. "Yeah, something may have happened to Rika and Renamon," he told him.

"Awww," Calumon said saddened, "but she has Renamon who's all tough and stuff." The white digimon kicked a key, before his face brightened. "I know, I'll go find them!" Calumon jumped from the computer and caught the air with his large ears. "Rika, Renamon, were are you!" he called out, before giggling as he left the room.

Jyou laughed, "Wow, I've never met a digimon quite like him."

"You're not the only one," Yamaki said, rolling his eyes behind his glasses. "What was the discovery that you made anyways?"

Jyou looked over at him. "Well, the key to digimon, I suppose."

"Hmm?"

Jyou blanked out for a few moments before focusing back in. "Well, we found the reason behind why Digimon defy all laws of physics and why ChromeDigizoid is so strong. We've finally found the reason why a rookie digimon is so much less powerful then a Mega."

"Something tells me this doesn't have to deal with how complex the data of a Mega digimon is," Yamaki said.

"Trust me. It doesn't."

-

-

-

MetalGarurumon glanced back, he gave a heavy sigh. He turned around and stopped. "What is your problem?!" he demanded from Sakuyamon. The mega slowed down and stopped within eight feet of the metal wolf. "You follow me relentlessly for seemingly no reason. You have not attacked, you have not tried to catch me, you've just tried to follow me."

"You kidnapped a human girl. You have no right to be in this world. Come quietly and we'll send you back the Digital World." Renamon's voice was strong and firm, but it was still only Renamon's voice. _Rika?_ Renamon questioned her partner.

_Something's wrong. He isn't a wild Digimon._ "Your voice, it echoes. You're a Tamer," Rika told him.

There was no change in the wolf's face. "You noticed." Renamon picked up on the echo and it surprised her that there was a definite difference. She was surprised that she didn't notice it before.

_What are you thinking, Rika?_ The Kitsune asked.

Rika mentally looked at her digimon, but said nothing. "Why then the girl?" Her voice was dangerous and MetalGarurumon X knew he was on thin ice. She had already proven that she was more then capable to hold her own . He had initially started to fight to get a rush of adrenaline, but her fighting style reminded him to much of his younger brother. The girl was safe and he had no reason to stay.

"She needed to get home, bringing her there was the easiest way." MetalGarurumon told her flatly.

"Yagean, Seiga is coming," Gabumon told his tamer. He barely had a chance to respond when a field of data cut him and Sakuyamon off from the real world.

_Rika, it's a Mega Digimon, _Renamon thought.

_More than that, it's Piedmon. He's sealed us off in one of his dimensions._ Rika thought back. _It's a move only seen in V-Tamer. I had thought that they had just made it up._

"Seiga," MetalGarurumon X growled at the clown digimon in the center of the extra dimension. Rika took note the light colors that reflected off the walls. There were hues of gold and blue mostly, with a little black and red mixed in. The area was limited though, which meant they could escape it if absolutely needed.

_That would be a bad idea, Rika,_ Renamon's thoughts came worried, something Rika knew to take serious. _Those walls, they are nothing but illusions. You could keep on going forever but never reach them._

_Scratch that idea then,_ Rika muttered in her head. Piedmon didn't seem to have anything special about him. Just a regular Piedmon, still the facial features were serious and angry. Far from anything the Digimon show had given him.

"Why are you here!" His voice full of hatred and anger as he spoke to MetalGarurumon X. "Bringing one of the Young Tamers with you as well," Piedmon spat. Gravity took no hold of it, so the Metal Wolf simply floated out of the way of the mucus that sped towards him.

"I have no quarrel with you," Yeagan's voice was the only one that spoke this time, "I would tell you that the girl is here to help look for her friend's partner. I would tell you that I'm not going to let you kill the red dragon simply because he flew over your area. I would also tell you that your underestimating my strength in bringing me here, but you're such a swinehund that I doubt a single word I'm saying is getting through to your brain."

Piedmon laughed, it wasn't insane, it wasn't evil, it wasn't creepy, but it sure as hell pissed of Gabumon X. The rookie wolf let his senses flow, sniffing the air. "Your not here for us. You just want to kill the girl."

"What?!" Sakuyamon yelped in surprise.

Piedmon looked over at Sakuyamon for the first time. "So, this is the famed Tamer, this is one of the Conquerors of the D-Reaper? It is because of you that this world knows of Digimon. The secret, carefully guarded for three years, destroyed and wiped out all because of you. You are despicable, thinking of nothing but your own attention. You have endangered all digimon, and for your crime you shall pay. The judgment has been passed and the decree is death."

"Everyone thinks they're Taichi," Sakuyamon smiled at him sweetly. "MetalGarurumon X, can I trust you?" she asked calmly.

"Normally, no, but right now is probably an exception," Yagean spoke.

Piedmon laughed. "You think that I will fall so easily! I will show you why I have only been defeated once." He brought out his swords, the four blades hovered in front of him.

"Sakuyamon," MetalGarurumon spoke.

"He can teleport his swords so keep my movements random so that he can't get a firm lock on my position," she finished for the blue mega. He didn't get to reply however, for the swords disappeared. She moved instantly cutting into a down ward spiral before launching herself back wards away from three of the swords that appeared were she had just been a second before. She looked at her target, the only way she could even get in a single blow was if she got up close. The problem with her fox spirits is that she had to concentrate at least somewhat to use them. If she lost any concentration she would make her movement non-random and she would be skewered.

She interrupted her backwards flight to dive in a U fashion before spinning of to the side.

_Rika, this isn't going to work. He has the advantage here beyond anything we can compensate for, _Renamon's hurried voice spoke to her.

"I know, I know!" Rika snapped at her. "I'm thinking, I'm thinking!"

Piedmon smiled as he heard the girl realize that she was done for. She had no advantage here and wouldn't be getting any either. The girl was dead. Still, he was seething. Her digimon had somehow communicated to her without anyone else knowing. Not even Taichi could do that with Agumon. This girl was so inexperienced and yet she had mastered something no one else had been able to. It bothered him that these children were seemingly up to the same level as even the weakest of the DPP. Piedmon may have been smiling, but Seiga was seething inside.

The scowl turned into a smile quickly as Sakuyamon stopped. He had her.

"Dimensi terus!" Rika muttered the end of her prayer. Sakuyamon stepped back as the weapons appeared.

Seiga couldn't believe what he was seeing. The girl had three large gashed through her stomach, but in a barrier in front of her was his three swords. He recognized the writing on the barrier. She had sealed them in a state of Pu. A Taoist thing. He could never get it. "Taoism. Chinese stupidity," He muttered.

Sakuyamon grinned, but winced as the pain from the blades initial appearance. "MetalGarurumon! Go!"

"I'm not blind!" MetalGarurumon X snapped at her in his duel voice. His Gatling gun was pressed against Piedmon's back and his laser cannon held to the back of his head. "Now, let us out of here. Now!" Yagean was not messing around. "Or I will kill you!"

Piedmon was trapped, he only had one sword, the other three had been sealed up by that witch. "You win," he muttered. He watched as his sword floated out in the colorless void. "But Damn it! I'll take my consolation prize you wolf *****!" He shouted.

MetalGarurumon didn't say anything, his beam just fired. The World dissolved and Piedmon de-digivolved into Demi-Devimon and Seiga. It was too late, though.

Sakuyamon watched as Piedmon focused on the sword. Her eyes widened, she didn't get a chance to speak though, the blade simply materialized in her breast.

MetalGarurumon quickly grabbed Seiga, and his eyes watched Sakuyamon fall. He shot towards her as fast as he could, but he wasn't fast enough.

Sakuyamon landed with crash, a small crater formed around her body. The X could only watch as Sakuyamon gasped her final breath when the blade was pushed out of her body. Handle first. MetalGarurumon watched as the data dissolved away from Rika's lifeless body.

He flew off leaving the girl dead.


	3. Chapter 3 Cheating Death

The Golden Goddess

Chapter 3

Cheating Death

"Come..." the digimon paused, looking for the right word, "Tamer." He said the word with a slight disgust. The digimon was an Egyptian-looking digimon named Reapermon. All digimon knew of him, how could they not? He was a digimon that scared everyone into hiding, to get the young ones to be good. He always got a good smirk when he thought of that. The young ones had a very good reason to fear him; he was the digimon of death. It was he who brought their poor worthless cores to Anubismon to be judged.

He had been privileged to be one of the original five packets of data to become the first things in that vast emptiness of the digital world, making him one of the oldest digimon. The first packet of data to open and become part of the Digital World was a mystery. Unlike all other data packets that opened later in the history of the digital world, the first one to open left no visible creature or land mark. No one knew what the data was that it held, what happened to it, or what it did. That did not mean, however, that didn't mean digimon didn't theorize about it through the ages.

The first packet has often been acquitted with other mysterious things in the digital world; digignomes being the first and foremost oddity of the digital world. These wish-bearers appeared some time between the opening of the seventh packet and the eighth packet. They were, however, not something that came from the seventh packet. Still, to the average digimon, there seemed no other option; the Digignomes were the first packet.

Not all of the scholarly agreed. Some said that the first packet was the Light of Evolution saying that no other source of power could have created it. This was debated however, as digivolving never came about until packet twelve. Before then digimon were just the level at which they came into existence. (Packet twelve brought forth the ability to reincarnate into a digitama once a digimon's data had been judged and their sentence served).

Still others claimed that it was the ability to bond with a human Tamer that came from the first packet. Personally, Reapermon thought that the first packet created the dark zone. Then again, being so closely tied with the housing place of the dead, he would say that. He chuckled at his own thoughts, the Tamer who followed behind him slightly forgotten.

The Second packet of data held what is known as the First Digital World. This first digital world was all forest and relatively small. (The Ninth Packet created the Digital World currently in use while the tenth packet turned the First Digital World into the digimon known as Ebowumon, making the two headed turtle the oldest digimon in existence, having actually been the very first thing in Digital Existence.)

The third packet of data was the first creation of three digimon, all three digimon were now legends among legends. The first to emerge was the Great Dragon, Fanglongmon. The second digimon's data to form was GranDracmon's and the third was the Legendary Knight, Alphamon. They disappeared with the Ninth Packet, their data having been too much for the Digital World to sustain for large amounts of time. What happened to them, Reapermon neither knew nor cared.

The Fourth Packet held a similar type of data to the third, but in a much more interesting way. The Fourth packet happened to be the beta type for a human game named The Legend of Zelda. So the digimon that came out of the Fourth Packet were Power, Wisdom and Courage; Megidramon, Magnadramon and Goldramon. All three disappeared soon after their creation, but not before the fifth packet opened. Most digimon thought they had been killed off by the Third Packet digimon, but that was not the case, for Reapermon had never come for their cores.

The Fifth packet was Anubismon and himself, Rulers of the Dark Zone and the bane of all digimon existence.

"If I'm dead..." the voice startled Reapermon out of his thoughts. The mega looked back at the Tamer that walked behind him, turning his smile into a scowl. "Why the Digital afterlife instead of the human one?"

"Trust me, I'm not happy with it either," Reapermon growled. "There wasn't any fun in reaping your soul; disgusting thing compared to the Digital Core, but you're data and their ain't noth'n I can do to change dat; even if you are an abomination to the dead. Filthy Human." Reapermon muttered, returning his gaze forward to continue his walk.

Rika said nothing; she had no reason to. She was dead and that was the end of it, except… "Renamon... is she... I mean?"

Reapermon snarled spinning around furious. "Your digimon? You two are just causing a whole bunch of trouble today now aren't you? Stupid fox was about to be weighed on Anubismon's scales when dat bastard Dragon came and claimed her as his own; tying his life force to hers. Robbed me of the satisfaction of seeing another one of your damned Tamer Digimon sent to the Dark Zone for your bloody crimes. It's not like reaping her core was any fun either. Stupid human interference all the time and…"

"Enough!" Anibusmon barked as he appeared in the darkness next to Reapermon. "You will have much to complain about later, however the problem of this human has been solved. Obviously the tamer can not be a part of the Dark Zone."

"Something tells me I'm not going to like this solution," the Digital Grim Reaper muttered.

"The Dragon has claimed ownership on her core," Anubismon told him.

"What? Hasn't that bastard defiled the dead enough as it is already!" Reapermon yelled.

"This one is mine," a pure and benevolent voice came from behind Rika. "Do not be so hasty as to blame my brother for everything. He has his reasons for doing what he does, and I have mine."

Reapermon stared at the White Dragon behind the red head tamer. "Magnadramon? You three disappeared and now two of you come to interfere in my work in the same day!"

"The dead are not yours and yours alone, Reapermon," The great Dragon reminded him. "All who exist before the seventh packet have a claim to them. Besides, didn't you get to reap plenty of cores during the attack of the D-reaper to be satisfied for some time now?"

Reapermon scoffed. "Yes, I did get to reap many cores, but I hated it. The back list was so long that I could never take any pleasure or delicacy in their cores. It was just one after the next. No fun what so ever and even worse, some digimon were hardly out of their digitamas. Reaping rookie cores is bad enough, but in-training and babies. Nasty, nasty stuff."

"That does not matter now," Anubismon spoke. "We have work to do. Magnadramon, I leave the girl in your hands. Come Reapermon."

The Egyptian like god scowled at the dragon before following his partner.

The great white dragon watched the two as they left, then turned her attention to Rika, who seemed to be shaking.

"Why?!" Rika snarled as she turned around towards the digimon, "What right do you have to keep me from my punishment?!"

"I created the Dark Zone," Magnadramon said calmly.

"You have no right to deny me of my punishment!" Rika's eyes held very obvious tears. "Don't the countless digimon I have so gleefully slaughtered mean anything! Doesn't the pain and destruction that I've caused mean enough for a punishment!"

Magnadramon was silent. She and Goldramon had created the Dark Zone to seal away their brother, but she could not leave him to himself; sealed off in a void with nothing but your own guilt to comfort you. Now this girl, this tamer was feeling its affects. "Perhaps," Magnadramon said slowly, "but your punishment is nowhere near what mine has to be. That is why it is put off; because I messed up."

Rika was startled by the Holy Dragon's fierce tone. "Using my sisterly instincts against me, my brother convinced me that he had changed, and it really seemed as if he had. I let him escape and the Digi-gnomes gave him a new form and body. But what is the first thing that he does when he awakes? He unleashes the Hazard onto the world." The Great Dragon heaved a sigh. "Enough of my ranting. You are alive, girl, because my brother needs someone to keep him in line, and you and your Digimon are the only ones who are strong enough."

"Why don't you say his name?" Rika asked.

Magnadramon turned around in the void to face her. "Why?" she snarled. "Because I hate him. I hate him beyond anything I have ever known. I hate him down to the last zero of my core. He has lost the right to be known as anything other then my brother. Yet, he is still my brother and my responsibility. You need to leave now; you have a long fight ahead of you," Magnadramon told her.

Rika opened her eyes inside of a small house, but had no time to take in anything before leaning over the side of the bed and puking out blood. Pain spread across her ches like wildfire, causing such pain she wished she could die. She screamed in pain, which resulted in puking up more blood and blacking out.

-

-

-

Yamaki watched as Taichi listened to the person on the other side of the phone, his lighter clicking relentlessly. "Any other information on exactly what happened last night?" Taichi asked. There was a reply from the other end that Yamaki could not make out.

"Alright, I'm sending Neo over once he gets back. Oh, and get some rest yourself, Jyou." Taichi hung up the phone before looking up at Yamaki. He glanced over at his digimon as Agumon let out some very choice words.

"What's going on?"

Taichi stared at his partner for a sec before sighing and putting his hands behind his large mat of hair. "That's just the problem. We don't know," Taichi informed him, aggravated.

"Perhaps it would help if we went over what we do know," Yamaki suggested, flipping his lighter.

"We know that it was Yagean that dropped Suzie off," Hideto spoke from the shadows, the light reflecting off only half of his face. "We know that Sakuyamon chased after him. We know they disappeared near India."

Melga continued for him, his voice was deep, but it was high for him and you could hear the strain. "We know that Yagean was the only one to reappear again."

"The question becomes why?" Warg finished for his Gabumon partner.

"Three reasons," Agumon spoke up. "First, Sakuyamon is dead, but I find that one hard to believe. Second, she was forced to de-digivolve, also unlikely. Third, she learned how to cloak herself. Unlikely, but possible."

Yamaki looked with curiosity as the three digimon spoke right in a row, never looking up at the humans, but looking at each other, seemingly to be a part of the conversation without ever participating. "What else do we know?" he asked calmly.

"Suzie is fine, whoever was doing tests on her were very careful not to injure her," Hideto spoke yet again, "but didn't bother hiding the fact that tests had been done to her."

"Inferring that whoever was testing her, didn't expect anything to happen," Taichi finished. "Yagean got her out of wherever she was on his own accord."

"That's not frightening at all," Agumon muttered sarcastically.

"Why does it matter so much?" Yamaki asked curiously.

Taichi glanced over to Hideto, "You wanna cover this one?"

Hideto glanced over at Taichi before speaking. "Why? It means that Yagean has been getting information that the rest of us haven't. After doing our own research, we had come up with nothing other then the fact that Suzie and Lopmon were still alive, having taken a different car than the one that Megidramon had destroyed. Other than that, we had nothing. Not only was Yagean able to find out where she was being held, but he was able to get her out."

All three digimon, (both Agumons and Gabumon) glanced towards the doorway before it opened up. "It means that I'm not afraid to do what needs to be done," MetalGarurumon X growled, his huge frame blocking the whole doorway.

"It also means that you take unnecessary risks that could bring more attention to digimon then their already is!" Taichi told him hotly.

"This coming from the guy who said not to bind the Tamers to our rules." Yageans voice came from the Mega wolf without Gabumon's echo. "This from the guy who's taken risks that weren't even fathomable."

"Any risk I've taken has only put myself in danger and you know that." Taichi shot back at him. "And you know why we had to let the Tamers do their own thing."

"We have your reasons, Taichi!" Yagean snarled.

"Enough!" Hideto snapped. "Both of you. We all know the situation is a little stressful right now, and we don't need anybody's confidence lacking. You know Taichi is a field commander, Yagean, so lay off. Taichi, don't forget that we follow you because we choose too, but not everybody does."

Taichi sighed, then smirked as he put his hands behind his head. "Wow, we are tense." His smile seemed to calm the room down.

MetalGarurumon glanced around at everyone in the room before rolling his eyes and hiding a little smile himself. "Stupid Taichi," he muttered. He hated how Taichi, with just a little smirk could make anyone relax and calm down. "Stupid charisma."

Yamaki studied the wolf. He had already made plenty of assumptions about Taichi. He was similar to the character portrayed in the show, but he was a field commander, knowing how to fight, but not how to prepare to fight. He didn't lack any of the charisma or calm headedness Yamaki had seen the Taichi in the T.V show have, but he was more hesitant then the show portrayed him to be. This Yagean was something different though, he seemed, familiar; friendly, but cold at the same time. Easy to hang around with until you threatened him in some way. It would probably be a good idea to get on good terms with him. "Yagean, huh? I must thank you for saving Suzie." The leader of Hypnos stuck out his hand towards the metal wolf.

"Don't thank me, I may have saved the girl, but I managed to get Sakuyamon killed," the metal wolf growled seriously.

Taichi's eyes shot towards the metal wolf, boring daggers into MetalGarurumon X. Yamaki held shock on his face, Hideto's was complacent. Melga shook his head silently while Warg barred his teeth at the news and Yagean's biomerged form.

"How?" Agumon asked, breaking the silence. It was the question hanging in everyone's mind. The older tamers had always had a certain respect for the new Generation. Four of them had reached Mega stage in the time it too them to just barely start to reach the Perfect stage. The new Generation was stronger on average, even if the older had some that were stronger then anything the younger had. The fact that a younger had been beaten would have been surprising, but not unexpected. To have a younger to be killed was something no one could believe to happen.

"Blame this murderer," Yagean snarled, throwing Seiga to the ground with his digimon.

-

-

-

Takato knocked on the front door of the Katou's house. Mrs. Katou answered the door. "Oh, hey Takato. Jeri will be down in just a second," she told him. Takato had called Jeri earlier that day to inform her about Suzie being safe, and asked if she wanted to go see her with him. She had said that would be a good idea and that they should bring her something. So now Dorumon was currently carrying a backpack full of fresh baked éclairs.

Jeri walked out in her normal attire, her face looking slightly more cheerful then it had been lately. It was still downcast, and her movement didn't hold her usual skip, but it was better than Takato had seen her that week. "Oh, hey Takato," Jeri said, before turning her attention to Dorumon. "Hey Dorumon," she said, a little bit more cheer in her voice as she patted him on his gem. Dorumon laid his head down and purred lightly.

The purple digimon's happiness brought brightness to Jeri's face. _Perhaps Jeri had more to do with Dorumon's creation then I did,_ Takato thought as his digimon helped Jeri start to regain herself. With her father dead, Jeri had still been able to not think of herself enough to give her blue card to him; the blue card she could have brought Leomon back with. She gave it to him and the result was Dorumon. Takato smiled, _There is a peace that comes with you, Dorumon. One that no other digimon can bring. It's a peace of happiness and safety; it's a peace of knowing that all things will work out in the end. _Takato smiled as they started to walk, Dorumon creating a gap between him and Jeri.

"Is Suzie alright?" Jeri asked Takato.

"Well, er…I guess. Henry said she wasn't injured, but that she was extremely shy now," Takato told her.

"It's no wonder," Jeri said. "The poor girl has been through a lot."

"You've been through a lot too, Jeri," Dorumon spoke up, comfortingly. "Maybe you can help her," he said innocently.

Jeri looked down at the X digimon in surprise. He was so young and naïve, and yet he placed so much confidence in her in that little sentence. She had always doubted herself. She had never been any good at anything, so she didn't have much confidence. For Dorumon to place so much of his confidence on her gave her an uplifting feeling. "Yeah, maybe," Jeri said sweetly, patting Dorumon's head again as the walked down the sidewalk. She looked over at Takato who seemed lost in his imagination. "Lopmon... how is she, I mean." Takato shook his head. "I see."

Jeri was quiet; she felt sorrowful for the poor girl. Suzie was so much younger then her and needed digimon in a completely different way. Suzie never had many friends; her lisp and oddities turning many people away from her. Few got to know her and even less were interested in the same things she was. For Suzie, Lopmon and Terriermon had been her only real friends. Even in her sorrow, she felt a small joy, even though she knew it was wrong. She was not the only Tamer to have lost a partner now. It gave her comfort knowing she wasn't the only one without a partner anymore.

Jeri's eyes were downcast as she became sickened with herself. How could she, the one who had actually lost a partner, knowing what it felt like, ever wish that upon anybody else. She had no right and it was even worse that she took pleasure in it. She felt disgusted with herself like she was covered in the D-Reapers slime.

"Jeri..." Takato started to speak, "I... I don't know how to say this... well, it's that... I'm... I'm going to go and find Rika and Guilmon." His voice lowered off as they walked through the park. "I don't want to leave you Jeri... I'm just worried about them, and Henry needs to take care of Suzie."

"Rika, Rika, Rika," Jeri muttered.

"Jeri?"

Takato was startled and fell on his rear as Jeri snapped towards him with her sock puppet in her hand. "Rika, Rika, Rika. You think more about her than digimon Takato. It's always Rika this, Rika that, how about we invite Rika!" Jeri's puppet in her hand berated him. "No one date, not one where you don't either try to invite Rika or mention her in some way. Rika, Rika, Rika."

"Uhhh... Jeri?" Dorumon spoke up. "Why are you speaking through your sock puppet on your hand? It seems to be someone else when you speak through it. Is this common among humans or digimon? I mean I've heard of two headed digimon, but this is a little bit strange comparatively."

Jeri's eyes took on a strange greenish hue as she turned towards Dorumon. "Hi, my name is Dorumon. I'm a sweet innocent digimon so everyone goes gah gah when they see me and think I'm so much better then Guilmon. I'm always trying to be better then Guilmon, be his replacement. I try my hardest to be cute and humble and ignorant and still be able to speak all the right words so that everyone will like me better then Guilmon. Did I mention I'm cute and lovable?" The puppet seemed to grin manically at the small little digimon as the real Jeri laughed in his face.

Dorumon cast his eyes down, "I'm... I'm sorry. I... I... I just heard so much about Guilmon that I wanted to be like him. I felt like I was created to fill his shoes until we found him again, and so that's what I did. I tried to be like him, to be what everyone wanted me to be. I... I just didn't know how... I guess I overdid it, huh?" Dorumons voice wasn't mad or sad, it was disappointed, but it held a firmness. He was going to be the best he could be. "I guess your right, I should stop worrying about myself and how I should be like Guilmon. I should be worried about helping Takato and you. That's what I was created for; to help you guys while Guilmon was gone, not to be a replacement. If I just stop worrying about how I should act and worry more about what I should do... is that what's right, Jeri?" He asked the question so innocently and sweetly as if nothing had been wrong with Jeri.

"This is not logical, do not all lifeforms care only for themselves? Do you not worry about who you are or why you were created? Does not the fact that you may exist for no reason then to fill the spot of Guilmon disturb you? What will happen when we find Guilmon? What then?" Jeri asked, her voice cold with a touch of curiosity.

"Huh?" Dorumon said confused. "I don't understand. I was created to help find Guilmon and when that happens I'll figure things out then. Why should I be so concerned with things of the future?"

"Not logical. After last analysis of all life forms, they are concerned with who they are," the sock puppet barked at him. "None are oblivious, all data integrated into system concludes that life forms are concerned with being. You are an anomaly, and therefore must be destroyed."

"Huh?" Dorumon asked confused, cocking his head, "But why destroy me. Didn't you just create me to help find Guilmon?"

"Target Anaylzed." Jeri's voice spoke from her mouth, but the smile was not hers. "Dorumon. Type: Unknown. Species: Unknown. Anomaly, is not concerned with existence of being. Does not compute correctly. Conclusion. Absorb Data and to study anomaly. Dangers. Anomaly may pose threat once absorbed. Risk. Low. Anomaly of being caused no harm when absorbed."

The sock puppet grinned and for his first time, Dorumon was terrified.


	4. Chapter 4 The Digital Reaper of Cores

The Golden Goddess

Chapter 4

The Digital Reaper

_Previous Chapter_

"_This is not logical, do not all life forms care only for themselves? Do you not worry about who you are or why you were created? Does not the fact that you may exist for no reason than to fill the spot of Guilmon disturb you? What will happen when we find Guilmon? What then?" Jeri asked, her voice cold with a touch of curiosity._

"_Huh?" Dorumon said confuse., "I don't understand. I was created to help find Guilmon and when that happens, I'll figure things out then. Why should I be so concerned with things of the future?"_

"_Not logical. After last analysis of all life forms, they are concerned with who they are," the sock puppet barked at him. "None are oblivious, all data integrated into system concludes that life forms are concerned with being. You are an anomaly, and therefore must be destroyed."_

"_Huh?" Dorumon asked confused, cocking his head, "But why destroy me? Didn't you just create me to help find Guilmon?"_

"_Target Anaylzed." Jeri's voice spoke from her mouth, but the smile was not hers. "Dorumon. Type: Unknown. Species: Unknown. Anomaly. Is not concerned with existence of being. Does not compute correctly. Conclusion. Absorb Data and to study anomaly. Dangers. Anomaly may pose threat once absorbed. Risk. Low. Anomaly of being caused no harm when absorbed."_

_The sock puppet grinned and for his first time, Dorumon was terrified._

Jeri's eyes held their merciless pale green as the sock puppet reached out for Dorumon's throat. It stopped when Takato slammed into his partner. The confused X rookie landed on the ground startled. He got up and looked over to see Takato glaring at Jeri.

"Get out of her body, D-Reaper!" Takato yelled at her, "Give us Jeri back! You're just playing off the loss of her father now."

"Who is this 'us'?" Jeri spoke quietly. "Surely you love me, Takato, do you not? All that time we spend together, all those dates we went on? Who else could you include? Impmon still can't look me straight in the face, so surely not him. Or are your thoughts so wrapped up in Rika that you've already joined her in body and soul. Is there no longer a 'you'? Is there no longer an 'us,' Takato? What about you and me? Why, why do your thoughts constantly concern Rika, it…"

"Stop it!" Takato yelled tearfully, "You're not Jeri. Stop speaking like you are."

Jeri's voice became monotone and very computer-like as she spoke through the sock puppet. "After all this time, it's been you, Takato, that's held me back. I could be back to my original form from the strength of her emotions had you not been there when her father died. Such power, like nothing I've ever drained from her. She's known I was still alive though, that I was always here. She tried her best to keep her thoughts pure and to have that energy that she used to have. She held neither hate nor anger toward anyone, not even to her own father who kidnapped her." Dorumon looked confused, but shivered as the sock puppet spoke. This was not Jeri; this was somebody else. It begged his mind to know where Jeri was. He looked around but could not find another Jeri lying around.

"Then, her father died, Takato," the D-Reapers cold voice went on. "She could no longer hold back. The energy that came forth was an anomaly. No being other than myself could hold that much energy. I instantly leapt forth to grab it, but the girl knew what I was doing and instantly sent it to any available channel she could find. That channel was you, Takato, and through you to Guilmon. It was Jeri that caused Guilmon to become that beast that you hate so much. It was Jeri that got you kidnapped, leading you to that situation. It's always Jeri who you have to protect, never being able to take care of herself because she doesn't have a digimon, and whose fault is that? A virus who sought after power? No, for that virus didn't want anything but to be noticed, far too much for you to do.

"You even went as far as to tell Guilmon to not hang around, the poor guy," the voice droned on. "All of this is your fault. Jeri would be just fine if you had never shown her Guilmon, but you wanted to be important, to get all the attention, leaving none for a young viral rookie."

"Shut up!" Takato choked tearfully.

"Is it any wonder you want to move on to Rika now? Just to be around Jeri must be hard for you because she reminds you of how cold and mean you are. Perfect for Rika: nice and cold; heartless. You're a real Jerk, Takato."

"I'm not like that and neither is Rika!"

"I have analyzed the situation and you are wrong. You are like that, my calculations are flawless, and you are just as cold as she is, except in one small concept." The D-Reaper's voice took on far too many emotions as it hounded Takato.

"You're wrong! Rika is not cold! She's just as caring as anybody else; she's just dealing with life!" Takato shouted at Jeri's body.

"I have analyzed the situation. Why do you fight the facts? Analysis indicates that you are just like Rika, only you have the capability of the concept of love. You have realized this and so you turn to Jeri for that which Rika cannot give. However, you cannot live with loving Jeri; you must love Rika and so your heart eternally torments you." Jeri's voice spoke so sweetly to Takato that young boy couldn't handle it. He fell to his knees. "You're confused, Takato. I'll take it all away. You shall see what is right and true."

"Shut up!" Takato's voice held more pain and less energy.

"Why should I when you never did? Whenever we did anything, it was always 'Just let me call Rika and see if she wants too.' Lets go to the movies and see if Rika wants to come, let's go to the park, look up at the stars and see if Rika wants to come. Rika, Rika, Rika. That's all I ever heard from you, Takato," Jeri's eyes watered. "Just once, just once I wanted to be the one you cared about, Takato. Was that too much to ask?!"

"I... I didn't want her to get hurt," Takato said softly. "I didn't want what happened to you to happen to her. You always hid behind your happiness, but Rika always hid behind her anger. I wanted her to feel like she belonged. The only one who she felt even took notice of her for the longest time was her Grandma."

"You wanted her to feel loved! What about me?!" Jeri spat, "It's because she's your dream girl, is it not? Every dream you remember is…"

The whole dream thought shattered as Dorumon slammed his head as hard as he could into Jeri's stomach, sending the D-Reaper to the pavement a few steps back. "I don't care how good you are faking things, but Takato is Takato, Rika is Rika, and Jeri is Jeri. Whoever the heck you are, you sure aren't Jeri! So give Jeri back!"

"Analysis inconclusive," Jeri muttered as she stood up. "Being is not so easily defined by simply a name."

"Shut up. What's all this crap you keep going on about? You have no right to meddle in other creatures affairs. I don't care who you are. You could be Fanglongmon himself and I would fight you," Dorumon growled. "You keep thinking that your way is the right way, well it's not. The right way is individualized for everyone. Takato has his right way and Guilmon has his. My right way is not Guilmon's and Takato's right way isn't yours. So shut up with all of your cocky stupidity," Dorumon snapped, very peeved at this doppleganger.

"Analysis inconclusive," Jeri muttered. "Creatures demand a right way. Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Light and Dark. Creatures demand opposites. Your thought pattern causes anomalies. You are not a real creature. Destruction of non-real creatures are lamented by no one. Extermination required." Jeri's voice was completely mechanical, the D-Reaper trying to comprehend Dorumon's words.

"Who gave you the right to decide what a creature is and what's not?" Dorumon barked at her. "You have no right to decide whether or not I should be kille; only Takato and Jeri have that right. They brought me into this world and they are the only ones who have the right to take me out."

Takato stared at his new partner in amazement. _Where are all these ideas coming from? _

"Analysis inconclusive." The D-Reapers voice was a flat line as Takato saw it taking in the strange concepts. "Right not required... right is something granted by no one. Right is ... Basic Rights... Right to..."Takato stared in awe as the D-Reaper got hung up on that concept of Right. He wasn't sure he agreed with his new partner, but that concept of Right held the D-Reaper. He fingered a card as the D-Reaper seemed to straighten things out in its twisted mind.

"Right is inconsequential. You are an anomaly and will be destroyed!" The D-Reaper shouted as layer of Data wrapped over Jeri's body turning her into the same being that had deceived Takato the first time he had gone into the D-Reaper. Her gray wings spread wide open catching the air. "DIE!" she yelled swooping down at the X digimon.

Takato pulled his card out as fast as he could, bringing it into his hand. "DIGI-MODIFY! DIGIEVOLUTION ACTIVATE!" The white light engulfed Dorumon but the Jeri Reaper was coming up too fast, he wouldn't get a chance to even fully digivolve before he was ripped to shreds.

"Death Claw!" The Jeri reaper screeched.

"Dorumon! NO!" Takato panicked.

The Jeri Reaper grinned maniacally before she was hit into the nearest tree by a blue wolf. "Who would dare stand against the D-Reaper?!" she snarled.

"Whaaa?" Takato said completely confused staring at Garurumon with a man in his mid thirties sitting on him with jet black hair.

"Well, well," came Greymon's heavy voice from behind Takato, confusing the goggle-toting tamer even more, "isn't this night just full of surprises." Takato looked up at the large sixteen-foot-tall dino. "First Suzie and Yagean, then Sakuyamon and now the D-Reaper."

"And me," came a cold cruel voice. Takato looked over at the source. It was a thin digimon with wings that seemed to accent a carelessness about the digimon, and yet great pride.

"Dorugamon. Looks you win, Warg, they do exist." said Garurumon to the black-haired man sitting on his back.

"It matters not what you are, you shall all be deleted by the D-Reaper!" the Jeri Reaper shouted.

"Let Jeri go" Dorugamon's said, his voice hateful and cold, holding a deadly undertone to it. Takato shivered, Greymon eyed the four and half foot champion wearily and Melga was thankful he was on their side. Hideto was the only one who seemed to be unshaken by it. "Or I'll Kill you."

The D-Reaper stepped back. A feeling it had never felt before coursed through the small amount that had hid itself in Jeri's body. It had always imagined that fear would be a most powerful of emotions, for it increased a beings defensive abilities. It still held that concept for right now, it wasn't afraid. It was terrified. Held in place by this strange feeling, it could answer nothing, could do nothing, and yet it held a desire to run as far from this anomaly as possible.

"I shall enjoy ripping your data from Jeri's remains painfully. It will be delightful to draw you out slowly as your data corrupts itself in my hand until your nothing but zero's. The pain will be legendary for you will feel as none other has," Dorugamon snarled. Takato, Warg and Melga were all struck for fear of Jeri's life at that moment. Only Hideto was unphased by the comment.

"Don't," Hideto said plainly. "It's a part of Jeri now. To kill the D-Reaper would be to kill Jeri as well."

Dorugamon shot a death glare towards the black-haired man, and his point got across. "That was kind of the idea," he muttered under his breath, but he understood the mans warning. He would have to hold back, for Takato's sake, and for Takato's sake only.

"Your Dead!" Dorugamon let out one last growl before his deadly body became a blade in motion.

-

-

-

Calm. Peaceful. Protective. Nobody could hurt her here. Nobody could get here but Renamon. Here in the deep recesses of her mind, she was below all pain, all physical attributes, below the need for Id, Ego and Super-Ego. A Nirvana blessed to her by Renamon: the deepest recesses of her mind. In here everything was black, and though she could not see, she had no need. She was in her mind and knew everything that was going on. It was all black, but she knew everything as if she could see it perfectly.

This place was unique to her, for it connected three different parts of her instead of the normal two. Her soul, her data and her body, all connected in the same area. It was here she was to stay until her body was strong enough to survive the process of living.

"Rika?" Renamon asked. Rika was snapped out her nothingingness state of mind.

"Am I to start living?" Rika asked. Renamon laughed, thinking back to when she first brought Rika's mind to the bottom, Rika had asked if she was dying. Renamon replied that she was not dying but rather coming back to life... living essentially.

"Yes, it's going to hurt," Renamon said plainly.

"I know," Rika said softly. "Renamon?" she asked.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry. I haven't been very forward with you," Rika said. "I've been ignoring you, and well, I'm sorry."

"What's this about Rika?" Renamon asked cautiously. "You've done this before, perhaps not for as long of a period. You've never apologized before."

Rika sighed mentally, considering that was the only way she could, "I made a promise, that day when Takato earned Grani. I overheard Jeri's parents and I realized something; for all of my whining and complaining, Jeri had it so much worse than I did, and yet she never once complained. Jeri had lost her mom, I simply had my parents divorced. I could have spent more time with my dad then I did. I made a promise to myself to see my dad more often."

"Hmm?" Renamon thought to her, "I'm not sure I quite understand. If you had made a promise to see your dad, then why haven't you?"

Rika glanced over at Renamon, "I... My birthday. I called my father that morning to see if I could come over to his place and spend my birthday with him."

_Rika was so excited as she dialed her dad's phone number. She hadn't seen him since before she had left for the digital world, pushing on seven months. The other line rang a couple of times before a young boy picked up the phone. "Moshi, Moshi." He said._

"_Hi, um, is my father there?" Rika asked._

"_Umm... I think you have the wrong number,"the boy said._

"_Is this the residence of Mr. Makino?" she asked confused._

"_Who is it, Raska?" She heard a voice come from the other side._

"_It's somebody looking for daddy. She says he's her daddy," Raska told his mother. There was some shuffling on the floor before the mothers voice came over the phone._

"_Now look here, you don't need the child support money, your mother makes plenty. So leave me and my family alone, alright. You have no right to butt into our business. I don't care if you're a models child, just leave us alone. He doesn't want anything to do with you,"_

_Rika cut off this women, her voice so acidic that most digimon would think twice before saying anything. "Let me talk to my father!"_

_The voice was silenced, and there was some scuffling. She heard some voices before a familiar voice came over the phone. "Rika," Her father said._

"_Dad!" she said enthusiastically. _

"_Rika, please, move on. I have." With that he hung up the phone._

Renamon glanced at her partner with studying eyes. "Why Takato then?" she asked.

"I held my anger in about my dad so that my mom didn't notice. It was then that Takato had called about going and looking at the sakura blossoms. My heart leapt for joy at that point. I know my mom loved me, but it wasn't enough, I needed somebody to replace the void my dad left. Takato had been the first person to reach out to me, to try and be my friend. I felt a peace as Takato spoke, and even the fact that it was just a ploy to get a birthday party ready for me, I felt at ease." Rika sighed.

"I never did tell you about that song; The Promise of the Setting Sun. It was taught to me by my father." Tears started to flow down Rika's eyes. "He just left me, left me to be alone, without him. Now he doesn't even want anything to do with me. I've tried moving on, I really have. I've done everything I can to forget it, but I just can't. That swing set, that song, my dad…"

Renamon placed a comforting hand on Rika's shoulder. They said nothing as Renamon brought them out of Rika's mind.

-

-

-

Gonnah watched as the golden digimon sputtered as she awoke. "You're awake," he said quietly.

Sakuyamon looked over at him. "Thank you, Gonnah, for watching over her." Renamon's voice came through.

"Tell me, does this form… does it help you heal? It's remarkable enough that your came back to life, but for the chest wound to heal as well. Miracles happen," Gonnah, the leader of the small village and residential spiritual leader spoke. "I have learned much from you, Renamon. I hope to learn just as much from you, Rika. I'll be interested if you live up to your partners tales."

Rika wondered what Renamon had told this man. "I thank you for watching over me, but we really must get going," she said.

Gonnah nodded, "I was not aware that you were in such good condition to make it back."

"She's not," Renamon spoke. "If it would not bother you, could perhaps we stay here for a week, until Rika is fully healed?" Rika was about to speak when she brought her hand up to her chest in pain.

"Very well, but I have request. I know that you are not a goddess, only because of what you have told me, Renamon. However, my people still believe you are. I would ask that for their sakes, you keep up that image."


	5. Chapter 5 The Wolf Brigade

The Golden Goddess

Chapter 5

The Wolf Brigade

"Who is he? Yagean, I mean," Yamaki asked, clicking his lighter as he and Taichi watched the battle between the Jeri Reaper and Dorugamon unfold from the roof of the DPP headquarters.

"Yamato?" Taichi asked solemnly.

"Is he?"

"Yes, and no. He's just like the rest of us who have partners. We used the show as cover."

"Who would believe in a fictional thing?" Yamaki took in this knowledge. "I understand that, but why would you base it off yourselves?"

"Takeru based it off of what he knew and that was the adventures we each had." Taichi's comment was short and to the point.

"So was most everything that happened in the show real to some degree?" Yamaki asked.

"No, the second season was a complete lie. The first season was done too well, and there became tow much interest in digimon, too many fanatics with a one in a hundred chance of finding about real digimon. We ordered Takeru to kill it. So he did with second season; tweaking stuff, adding stuff that wasn't real, just making it a real mess. The adventures actually ended up being some sort of a cross between the V-Tamers comic and Adventure 01," Taichi muttered. He was quiet for a second before going on. "I've often wondered if that was a good idea."

"I don't mean to pry, but exactly, what are you guys? How close was the show to being right?" Yamaki inquired

Taichi's eyes held a deep sadness as the battle went on in the distance. "The wave, the wave took us. In a single day, fifty two kids were reported missing from beaches across the world. Each of us have our story, but in the end it was all the same. We all wound up in the digital world after being swept away. Beyond that, we've never figured out how we got to the digital world."

"A wave?"

"Yeah. I had been out swimming with my date, the one you would know as Sora. I had was thirteen at the time, so it wasn't really a date, per say. Both of our families had known each other for a long time, and we used to get teased about being betrothed at birth. The sun was shining and everything seemed just fine. I had been playing with her in the water, teasing her like any male going through puberty teases a girl. We heard our parents calling and we turned back to see what they were trying to say when the wave hit us. The next thing I knew, I was completely disoriented with what I eventually knew to be Digignomes surrounding me. I wasn't the only one though. There were lots of us. In fact, all fifty-two where there in the beginning."

Taichi stopped for a second as the battle in the distance seemed to halt for a second before resuming itself. He paused, lost in his thoughts. "All of us received our Digimon immediately, but no sooner do two people get together before one tries to dominate the other. Devimon was not this evil thing that took control of monsters through Haguramon's attack." Taichi's voice was filled with disgust and another emotion that Yamaki could not identify. "He was the partner to Heinrich. The fool quickly learned the rules of the digital world and found the strength of downloading digimon. Many thought that this was a despicable idea, but most of us were more worried about trying to survive than anything else. We had all been so young and innocent."

There was an anger in Taichi's voice and a fear in his eyes as he thought back to that time. "Heinrich then caught word that downloading a tamed digimon's data gave more power than just a regular digimon." Taichi's voice grew colder as went on. "He managed to get two people to trust him, Veina and Sam. These three went forward and killed off both Tamers and digimon; downloading the digimon to become stronger. They became so strong so quickly that none could fight against them. They killed fifteen before they were stopped."

Taichi's expression shifted. "Takeru, poor Takeru. Before Heinreich, some of the Tamers had gathered together more for companionship than anything else, but now you had to group to not be murdered by Heinreich. When Heinreich started to kill off people, some very powerful and noticeable alliances were formed. Neo, Hideto, Seiga, Mimi, and Michael became the most powerful group; even Heinreich didn't dare attack them. With six digimon between them, Arkadiamon's Dot Matrix, and Warg and Melga's near flawless teamwork, even he was scared."

"I took it as my responsibility to take care of the younger ones. Our full group finally consisted of Yagean, Sora, Takeru, Jyou, my little sister, Angel, Kelsey, Anna Yuu, Tsurgi, Ami and myself." Taichi thoughts drifted for a sec, "We finally did face Heinreich. Jyou, Tsurgi, Kelsey Takeru my little sister and I all went after Heinreich. Ami, Yuu, Anna and Angel fought Sam, and Yagean went after Veina." Taichi's features became a calm façade; all emotions he had been showing previously were gone. Instead, his once thoughtful and angry face held a quiet peace to it.

"Sam ended up being killed by accident after his digimon had been destroyed, but not before he had slain Anna and mortally wounded Yuu. The younger wolf died a week later. Heinreich beat all of us pretty badly before proceeding to kill Kelsey and her digimon. It was then that Patamon digivolved and used all of his strength against Heinreich's Devimon. He defeated Devimon at the cost of his own life." Taichi's features changed instantly. He no longer held the peace in his face. He was pissed and he was showing it.

"Heinreich still had one more card to play, though. It seemed he had somehow stolen Sora's egg, and since the egg had never been touched by Sora, it had yet to be hatched. He had the egg absorb Devimon's data..." Taichi stopped. "It doesn't matter."

"I'm sorry to have brought up such bad memories," Yamaki apologized, "but why was Yagean the only one to fight Veina."

Yamaki heard some clanking behind him as MetalGarurumon X came walked slowly towards them. "Brother, what big ears you have. Brother what a big nose you have. Brother what big eyes you have. Brother what a big mouth you have. Then the wolf proceeded to gobble up the girl until he was satisfied," came Yagean's cruel voice, void of caring. "Veina was my sister. I didn't kill her at the time, but I could never forgive her for what she did." MetalGarurumon X leapt off the building to go and join the fight.

It was not Taichi, but Agumon who spoke next. "Veina had always been called little Red Riding Hood. She was Suzie's age, and yet, when Heinreich took her from Yagean, he taught her to become a killing machine. She was so sweet and innocent that no one would ever see the dagger in her hand; no one but Yagean."

Yamaki was shocked into silence. He had no words for what he felt; pain, fear, anger, revulsion and yet sympathy. He didn't quite understand, but the feeling was correct as Taichi spoke.

"Kill her. Kill her while you are still a beast and not a man. Kill her now."

-

-

-

The hospital room was quiet as Henry held his little sister while everyone else in his family had gone for breakfast. The room seemed to reverberate with the little background noise that came from the nurses and doctors going to and from the different available beds. Henry watched the early morning sun come up; its rays laying over him as he sat on the hospital bed holding his youngest sister.

Last night had been such a shock to him that he really hadn't fully comprehended what had happened. His sister went from being dead to being alive. He held her lovingly in his arms. He had always watched over Suzie the best he could, but he couldn't exactly say he had appreciated her. She was always trying to hang out with him and whining when she didn't get her way. She had always been the one that had been catered to, and he had many fights with his parents over her.

Yet, he still knew he had to take care of her. She was so sweet and innocent, if a little devious, but she knew nothing of reality. She was the one who had always added something interesting to his life. Whether it was her latest game of princess pwetty pants or her remarkable skill in the digimon card game, she had always given him something to smile at. Even Terriermon, through all of his antics, didn't seem to bring him as much joy as she had.

He looked down at her as the sun gleamed off her brown hair. She felt his gaze and looked up at him, but worry held the complexion on her face. "Suzie?" Henry asked.

"Henry.... why... why didn't Jeri ever use her blue card?" Suzie asked, almost shamefully. "Why didn't she bring Leomon back?"

"I don't know Suzie," Henry told her. "She was probably scared."

"Of what?"

"Maybe she was afraid that Leomon wouldn't want to be her partner again, or that she would lose him again," Henry said thoughtfully. "If she were to lose him again, I don't think she could handle it, and she was afraid of that. She could have felt that we would have looked down on her if she had created him again. Then again, she could have felt that she wasn't worthy of a partner. Or it could be any combination of these things. Why do you ask?"

"Henry... they... they cured me." Suzie started to bawl as she pushed herself out of her brother's arms. "They fixed me, and they did it by using Lopmon. They studied her and killed her. I saw it! She was in a vat with nothing over her mouth. She would have drowned even if I hadn't killed her earlier. They used her to fix me, Henry."

Henry was startled out of the peaceful mind frame he had been in with his sister just moments before. "Suzie, stop this. There was nothing wrong with you. It's not your fault they killed Lopmon; they probably would have anyway." Henry cursed himself inwardly, what on earth was he supposed to say?

"Shut up!" Suzie yelled at him. "It's not like you didn't know, Henry; my brain tumor. They cured my brain tumor. Why do you think I'm not speaking with a lisp anymore? Why do you think I can actual make coherent thoughts now?! Why do you think I can actually understand things now?! They cured me, Henry. They took the data from Lopmon that has regenerative properties and inserted it into my own nervous system. My own data stream took it to my brain and recopied itself over the brain tumor, Henry! They cured me. They did the one thing I've always wanted. Now I don't have to be picked by kids for being different! Now I don't have to always try to hang out with you because you and your friends are the only ones who can stand me!

"I'm cured, Henry. You and the family don't have to pretend like I'm not different now! You don't have to come down to my level to talk to me. Even better, Henry, the process did more than bring me up to the mental maturity of my age, but it went even farther. I'm cured. Don't you get it? Don't you get it?! I'm finally alright...." Suzie latched onto her brother, her tears streaming down her face as she buried her head into his chest. "But the process killed her, Henry. It killed her. I took too much data from her and it killed her! I killed Lopmon, Henry! I killed her!" Henry's chest was soaked in a matter of seconds as he put his arms around her small frame.

He had always known about Suzie's brain tumor, but the family had made a decision. They had wanted her to live as normal of a life as she could, so they kept quiet about it. It had worked to a degree, but Suzie had always been obviously different. In the beginning it always seemed as if she was going to lead a normal life. It was when she went to school that the differences started to become more and more noticeable. As the other kids grew up and matured, Suzie always seemed to be a bit younger, and yet, was the smartest person in the class. She could understand concepts of science far more quickly than anyone else and math was easy for her.

She had a hard time reading, though. At age eight she was barely able to read her basic characters. Small sounds were difficult and words impossible. She never seemed to understand many emotional feelings. She didn't understand why people wouldn't want to play with her or why she had to do things a certain way. In the beginning, she had been over exuberant, always trying to meet new people, but as people started to turn her away again and again, she stopped trying. Her attitude never changed, but she finally figured out that the result she was getting wasn't one she wanted, so she stopped.

She knew something was different about her. Henry had heard her crying in her room more than once, never knowing what it was about. It was because of her brain tumor that he had always protected her. He didn't want her to suffer anymore then she already had. He wanted her to be protected so she didn't have to cry.

But now, he had no idea of what to say. He merely hugged her and whispered very softly. "It'll be alright. It'll be alright."

Jyou watched from the doorway. He sympathized with Suzie, for he had once felt that the same way. Even today he wondered if he could have done anything different back then. Before Jyou had entered the digital world, he had been a victim, or at least that's what he thought in his mind. Everything had been somebody else's fault. It didn't matter what happened to him, he always put the blame on somebody else. It was his teacher's fault he got the grades he did, they were too hard on him. It was his friends' fault he was home late because they wanted to stay a little bit longer. It was his brother's fault they were fighting because he started it. Ownership was not something he would take.

When he went to the digital world, the idea of things being other people's fault didn't change. There was something else, though. His digimon, Gomamon, always had a good attitude about everything. Even if other digimon and tamers got sick of his teasing and playfulness, his motto had been that life was too short to stress about the big things. You could stress about the little things all you wanted because that's what made people individuals.

Thinking of Gomamon brought a small smile to Jyou's lips. He would have wanted for him to move on, not to stress over him. Jyou never could live by Gomamon's philosophy and the reason was Gomamon himself. Unlike the show, it in fact had been Gomamon who was always sick, chronically sick on top of that. It was some disease that was the digital equivalent was Leprosy, in at least what it did to the body. D-Teriate, as it was called, was an inborn disease that ended up in the digimon's data corrupting out at a young age. Gomamon had always kidded about it aging him quicker than everybody else, making him the oldest and wisest. He would often stand on a small hill waiting for people to come and ask him for his sage advice.

That had been his partner and friend right up until the very end. Everyone else had gone ahead without him to fight Heinrich the second time when Gomamon had run his course through his life. Jyou often played the moment in his head of the small Digimon giving him one final lecture about needing to relax. His final words never changed from who he had been, they were all play and fun, giving hope in what had become Jyou's darkest hour.

When the disease had finally claimed Gomamon's core, the digimon had dissolved into data leaving only his orange mane behind for Jyou to remember him by. Jyou waited in that city for the longest time working in the hospital. At first he had blamed Gomamon for leaving him here like this, but there was a day that all changed when he met two digimon, a Wizardmon and a Witchmon. They exemplified Gomamon's statement that life is short, don't fret about the big things.

_Jyou walked into the room in a rather sour mode. It had been a full two years since the others had left to leave him with Gomamon. The reminder did not help how stressed he was. However, the situation in the room surprised him to no end._

"_Oh, sure, you just had to be the chivalrous one and get in front of that fireball. Now look, we're stuck in this place because of you. If you wouldn't worry about me, we could get places faster," Witchmon scolded Wizardmon._

"_Oh, shut up, you old hag," Wizardmon retorted back. "If I had let you get hit by that fireball, you would have been complaining about for the rest of the trip; requiring us to stop all the time. This helped us to get to your lousy mother's house faster."_

"_Oh, if you were a real husband, you would know to not call me an old hag," Witchmon scolded him._

"_Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble," Wizardmon shot at her._

"_Oh! You know how much I hate that!" Witchmon yelled at him, bringing her broom down to meet his._

"_Honey wait!" Wizardmon spoke._

"_Oh no you don't. You're not getting out of this one!" Witchmon said putting more weight onto her broom._

"_No, it's not that, honey. I would love to fight with you, but we just seem to have a guest," Wizardmon told her._

_  
"A guest!" Witchmon screeched looking over at Jyou. "Why didn't you say so?! Look at me, I haven't gotten any time to prepare. I look hideous!"_

"_Of course you look hideous. You're a Witchmon, you're supposed to look hideous."_

Jyou stopped his train of thought as Suzie looked up at him, hollowness and pain in her eyes. Jyou knew the feeling, he knew the feeling very well. After meeting those two digimon, something about Gomamon's words finally made sense; too bad Jyou had gone too far the opposite way and blamed himself for Gomamon's death. In fact, he blamed himself for everything now; well, everything that was reasonable. It was the reason he had become a doctor. He had wanted to pay Gomamon back for what he had taught him so that no one would have to go through the same thing as Gomamon did.

"If... if you could go back and never have had your tumor, would you? Would you go back?" Jyou asked.

Henry turned his head to see Jyou there for the first time. Suzie's tear-filled eyes looked at Jyou before letting her head shake a little. She held it still for a second before shaking it as if she really meant it. "No, no I wouldn't."

"He wouldn't have either," Jyou told him. "He, he had no regrets; no reason to regret anything. Maybe that's the final lesson he was trying to teach me. Just maybe." Henry looked at Jyou curiously; confused at where that had come from or who the 'he' was that Jyou was talking about. Suzie just seemed to understand, and let a small smile part her childish lips.

-

-

-

Takato's body started to shake as Dorogamon's arm slashed through the Jeri-Reaper's body. "No," he yelled, but the beast digimon didn't even miss a beat as he stepped around the Jeri Reaper until he was fully behind it and slammed both of his claws into the creatures back. The Jeri- Reaper shrieked in terror.

"No!"

Dorugamon slammed the Jeri-Reaper into the dirt, leaving a small impression, before leaping into the air. "Power Metal!"

"No! Dorugamon stop! This isn't right!" Takato yelled at his partner. "This isn't how it's supposed to be." Takato fell to his knees. He was losing him, just like Growlmon. He had lost Guilmon, was the same thing going to happen to Dorumon? Takato sobbed as he dropped on his hands. "Please stop, Dorugamon. Stop, this isn't you. I almost lost Guilmon like this; I don't want to lose you, too. Why won't you listen to me? Please just stop. Why won't you lay off? You don't have to fight so hard. Jeri's still in there."

Takato mustered all the strength he had to stand, "Dorugamon, stop. Stop it. You don't have to do this!"

Takato halted as all of the blood rushed to his head and he blacked out.

-

-

-

Betamon X: Yes, this is a heavy reference to the Movie the wolf Brigade. You would have to see it to fully understand the implication behind Taichi's final comment.

Gomamon: Mon, it's been a while since we've done an author's note.

Betamon X: And this is short and just explanatory at that.... Lame.

Be satisfied you got to show up

Frozen Twins

Betamon X  
Gomamon


	6. Chapter 6 The Goddesses Miracles

The Golden Goddess

Chapter Six

The Goddesses Miracles

"What? Where am I?" Takato wondered out loud. "This place, it looks familiar."

"Of course it does," a peeved digimon spoke. "This place is where your brain and my core intersect; The place that tells how much energy to pull from the tamer and where to pull it from; the brains of the operation.

"So we're in the D-Arc?" Takato asked slightly confused as he turned to face Dorugamon.

"Yes and no. We are merely transmitting our outputs into the D-arc. As you move your hand, your brain doesn't send the signal to your body, but to here," Dorugamon told him sharply.

"Is this what Renamon and Rika do, when they talk to each other I mean?" Takato asked.

"I don't know. I'd imagine not, considering the nature of their thought speak and that no one else has mastered the technique." Dorugamon paused for a moment. "Tell me... Tamer," he said, putting extra disgust on to the last word, "why did you stop me? Not only did you cut off the energy supply from yourself, you started to deplete mine. Why?!"

"Wait, I did what?" Takato asked confused.

Dorugamon sighed. "How did a fool like you ever create me?" he muttered. "I was ready to finish the Jeri-Reaper off when you with held your power from me. Even worse then that, you not only withheld it, but took my energy away from me." Dorugamon rolled his eyes, the repeated comment hung in the air. "Why do I even bother?" he walked away as Takato felt a strange pull on his body.

Yamaki watched as Takato started to come to in the hospital room, "You're awake," Agumon said quietly. Everyone in the room: Takato's parents, Taichi, Yamaki and Hideto with Warg and Melga, turned to look at him.

Takato took a second to look around at everyone, before all the events came rushing back to him. "Jeri, where's Jeri? Is she alright?" he asked worriedly.

"Jeri's fine," Mrs. Matsuki spoke, as she smothered her child, tears of joy running down the side of her face. Takato simply held his mom before she finally let go.

"What happened?" Takato asked.

It was Hideto who spoke. "You seemed really distraught for a few moments during the fight before yelling something and passing out. Then both Dorugamon and the Jeri-Reaper fell to the ground before passing out as well. Dorugamon awoke five minutes later as Dorumon, and Jeri was back to herself with no memory of what happened." His voice soothed Takato's troubled soul.

"And when you didn't wake up, I didn't know what I would do," Mrs. Matsuki spoke tearfully. "I know you can take care of yourself, but I still worry Takato." Her teary eyes became blurry as she reached down to hug her son.

Takato was silent for a moment before reaching around his mother and giving her a comforting hug. "I'll always be here mom. I promise that," he told her comfortingly.

Yamaki glanced at his pager as it went off and motioned for Taichi to follow him. It wasn't until they were in the elevator that Yamaki explained. "Looks like the government official in charge of Hypnos funding is requiring my presence."

"I take it you want me there to watch?"

Yamaki shook his head no, "No, I actually just wanted to go over some things with you on the walk there."

"I understand. This situation, it's an odd one," Taichi spoke.

They walked out of the elevator and towards the front of the building.

"First we have the Yakuza and the Megidramon incident. Now, you guys all show up, the D-Reaper is back, and Rika and Renamon are supposedly dead. On top of that, Suzie, who was thought dead, comes back healed of a brain tumor." Yamaki's voice was his usual calm that he often spoke with as they exited the hospital and started to walk down the sidewalk towards Hypnos. "I don't suppose you found out anything about the D-Reaper?"

"Yes and no," Taichi told him. "We figured out how it survived. It replaced the dormant data in Jeri's body with it's own. Normally it wouldn't have been able to do this, but without a digimon to constantly refresh the data, it was able to implement its own. How it was able to actually take over Jeri's body is still unknown."

"And Suzie?" Yamaki asked, knowning he was touching on fragile ground.

"She has a healed brain tumor." Taichi said passively.

"We can't just sweep this one under the rug, Taichi," Yamaki told him. "If the media gets even a whiff of her, I don't know that anything we did would save her."

"Which is why we bring no attention to it. She's healed from a deadly disease by the use of digimon. The only way to prevent her from being dissected to pieces is to make sure no one else realizes the implications of this," Taichi reminded him.

Yamaki clicked his lighter a few times. "But if the Chinese have already found out the secret…"

"Then why were they still experimenting on Suzie?" Taichi asked.

Yamaki gave in, this was one battle he wasn't going to win. "Any word on the renegade, Yakuza?" he asked Taichi.

"Yes, but not enough to confirm anything. Yagean is taking Takato and Dorumon with him to investigate our leads tomorrow," Taichi's voice held a bit of hesitation in it, "more to try and find Guilmon. A digimon with that kind of power stored in him really shouldn't be roaming around where just any country can pick him up." Yamaki clicked his lighter a few times, before Taichi spoke this time. "What was the secret that Jyou uncovered?"

Yamaki smiled, "It's the key to digimon. Why they can defy the laws of physics, or at least appear too."

"What do you mean _appear_?" Taichi questioned. "They do defy the laws of physics. A punch of the same force from perfect level digimon and a rookie level digimon do dramatically different damage."

"That's the thing, they aren't at the same force. The perfect actually has an energy boost coming from his core when he punches if he so chooses, but it isn't applied until his punch makes contact with an object." Yamaki paused for a second, "the rookie has an energy boost as well, but can't hold as much energy, so it comes out weaker. It's rather a unique thing to see because the energy travels at the same speed as data, meaning that the faster a digimon can process it's data, the faster it can bring that energy forward, allowing it to deal with faster situations better."

"Then why is a Perfect level digimon's skin so much harder then a rookies?" Taichi inquired.

"It's the ability for a digimon to heal. A digimon pulls energy from themselves repair damage as it's being made. Champion level digimon have more energy to pull from their core then rookies do, allowing them to take more hits. It would be like increasing your metabolism to infinity for a brief period of time."

"It's no wonder that digimon eat so much! They have to replace all of that energy that they use to heal themselves." Taichi pulled of his trademark grin that had become popular in the show. "If that's the case, I won't ever complain about Agumon eating too much again." The two grown men laughed quietly to themselves.

-

-

-

Sakuyamon sat eating the food with Gonnah and his wife, Senna. She had been all over the village this morning, being introduced to everyone. Renamon had spoken little to the people, and Rika even less, often times her voice not being apart of Sakuyamon's. She ate her food slowly, thinking carefully about all the things that happened that morning.

"You've been quiet all morning," Gonnah told the gold digimon. "Is something bothering you?" he asked politely.

Rika was about to say something but held back. _Rika? _Renamon asked curiously.

Sakuyamon swallowed her bite before Rika spoke up from inside the sphere. "I don't mean to mean to be rude, but I never expected things to be so... I don't know, modern, I guess. I had always thought all of India was villages and ate rice and were tribal-like."

Gonnah laughed heartily. "Ignorance, what a great thing. Did you expect us to live like Japan does?"

Rika smirked inside Sakuyamon, "Well, it's not that. I guess I would have been fine with that, or at least towns and cities, but this is something I never expected. It's like a cross between tribal and modern. You have houses made of concrete while you cook your food over an almost open fire. Almost everyone I saw has there own garden of some sort, but the clothing you wear is the kind of stuff you would find at a discount clothes store."

Sakuyamon ate another piece of a roll, slightly spiced, before going on. "I mean even this food. I had always thought that you ate pure rice or something. I never knew that most of northern India's staple food was wheat, much less that you had so many spices and could flavor things so many different ways."

Senna smiled, taking the compliment of the food. "To think, one of the Legendary Monsters is such a child. I mean no offense, but it is funny to meet you in person. Tales of your exploits are often distorted by the time they get here. Still, it is amazing how many things are true now that I've gotten to meet you. It's been a real honor."

Rika looked at Gonna's wife, "That's another thing. Everybody knows I'm a digimon here, but they react so differently. Back in Japan, the common populace held the idea that digimon were a thing to be feared, yet respected. You were to tread lightly around them less they try to harm you. My friends and I have always had no problem getting along with digimon and a lot of the people we were around got used to them. Here, it's so different. Digimon are mighty warriors of legend who are strong powerful, courageous, sincere, friendly, always there to protect you; something that sparked hope in your life because you could rely on them. The people here act so differently."

Gonna nodded. "You are a legend incarnate. Imagine if Hercules, Odin, Rama or any of the legendary heroes were to appear. How exactly would you react to them?" He paused, eating his own role before hesitating a second longer. "Please, tell me, if you didn't have any intention of ever coming here, why is it that you bothered to learn our language, and manage to speak it most fluently?"

_That is a valid question, _Renamon spoke to her in her mind. _I never knew that you spoke Ruby so fluently. I've only ever heard you speak Java and Basic._

Rika was puzzled. _Java... Basic? Ruby? What are those, I only know Japanese and some English. _ Rika focused her attention on Gonna. "I'm not sure what you're talking about. You've always spoken Japanese."

This time it was Gonna's turn to be confused. He glanced over at his wife who was studying Sakuyamon carefully. Renamon started to speak, this time to everyone, _"_They've always spoken Ruby, Rika. I thought the Japanese and English were a people."

Now Rika was really confused. Gonna also held a look of perplexion on his face. Only Senna held her face normally, before smiling. "I think that the stories did not include one interesting fact concerning digimon. Somehow, the sounds that escape your lips and the words that come into your ears are different. You speak our language, but think you speaking yours, even so that each of you speak your own language while you are apart of each other."

Gonna looked to his wife before clasping his hands together in joy, "Yes, that must be it. Digimon have found some way to break the language barrier! Think of what this means!"

"Now, now, dear," Senna told her husband, "I think this girl has enough on her plate without you adding to it."

Gonna looked at his wife. "Of course my dear, but I mean it wouldn't harm to do some experimenting with it." His wife glared at him.

"That would be fine," Rika said, trying to break up the tension. "It'll give me something to do while my wound heals."

"Yes," Renamon agreed, "and it wouldn't cause any strain on us. I'd be interested in knowing more about this too." Gonna looked at his wife with a satisfied victory smirk. Senna simply rolled her eyes.

"Just don't go too far. Remember, they are only here as long as they want to be. You just might scare them off," Senna told them.

Sakuyamon laughed at the thought of this short Indian man scaring her off. It would be like Takato trying to keep bread away from Guilmon. Rika's mind froze for a second. _Takato... Oh, crap. Everyone must be so worried about me. How stupid could I be? I haven't even thought about them. What kind of a friend is that?_ _ I know, I'll email my mom and Takato and everyone else and tell them where I am._ Rika was about to ask where a computer was when a shout interrupted her thoughts.

"Gonna! Gonna! Come quickly!" A women's voice was heard. "Sanshha was bitten by a snake and poisioned!"

Gonna glanced to his wife, who immediately shoved all of the food off the table and ran to the back to get herbs and medicine. Gonnah, however, ran out of the house to see a man be carried by another fireman-style. "What kind of snake was it?" he asked hurriedly as the man brought Sanshha into the house and laid him down on the table at which they had just been eating at. Sakuyamon stood off to he side in the shadows, perfectly still so that no light gleaned off of her armor.

"No one knows. We couldn't find it, but it was in the swamp," the man said as he laid Sanshha down.

Gonna quickly knelt down and checked the man's pulse, before looking at his eyelids and the snake bite. He was worried; Sanshha had already fainted from the poison. Senna gave him some paste she had made and he placed around the wound. She proceeded to bring out a hypodermic needle. Gonna looked over at her, and nodded. She placed the antidote into Sanshha's body.

Sanshha jerked for a moment before lying down peacefully, his breathing shallow. "Did it work?" the women who had yelled for Gonna asked. Gonna glanced over to her.

"No, it slowed it down though. Without knowing what kind of snake it was... these are similar symptoms for two kinds of snake bites with completely different poisons. Give him the wrong one, and either he'll die or I won't be able to give him the other one without killing him," Gonnah said quietly.

"No! There must be something we can do."

_Rika, we can not just stand by the side and let this man die, _Renamon scolded her.

_I know, but what can we do? I know nothing about poisons. We need somebody who knows what there doing, _Rika said back.

Renamon was silent for a moment. _Rika, do you know what title is given to Sakuyamon? She is to be a Messenger from God. How many messengers do you know haven't been able to heal?_

Rika was silent for a moment. _I'm trusting you with this, Renamon._

_Very well then, _Renamon said.

"Move," Sakuyamon said as Gonna got out of the way. The man who brought Sanshha and the women looked at her worriedly, and yet the women's eyes held hope in them. If anybody could save Sanshha's life, it would be this digimon. Sakuyamon ran her hands along Sanshha's body, especially near the snake bite before speaking.

"The poison is settling inside the cells," she told Gonna.

Gonna looked downcast. "Then I know which antidote to use..." he glanced over at his wife, "but it'll be too late."

Sakuyamon studied him. "Give it to him; I can give him some of my energy to help him get the antidote to his cells fast enough before they start to die."

Gonna looked at her curiously, before nodding. "Very well then. We leave his life into your hands."

Gonna took another hypodermic needle an pushed it into Sanshha's skin. Sakuyamon held her hands on his leg as she pushed her energy into Sanshha. Inside of her sphere, Rika could feel the drain of energy on her as it was transferred to Sanshha, but more importantly, she could feel Sanshha's body and system. She didn't know how or why, but she started to guide it, bringing white blood cells to certain parts of the body, moving the antidote to others, thinning his blood in some places and giving energy to cells in others.

The four Indians watched with amazement as Sakuyamon stood perfectly still. She finally opened her eyes and picked up her staff; she had to use all of her strength to bring herself up to lean on it. "He needs rest, but he should be fine. It took a toll on his body though."

Sanshha's wife held tears in her eyes. "Thank you. Thank you." Gonna and Senna held hands as they looked at the mega level digimon with a new degree of respect.

The final man was paralyzed, "The stories... I never "

Sakuyamon would have heard more if she hadn't fallen to the ground unconscious at that moment. Gonna, however, caught her, and with Senna's help, put her back onto the bed Rika had woken on earlier. There was an unspoken fear between them; had she pushed to hard in her condition? Unfortunately, neither had an answer.


	7. Chapter 7 Tales of Digimon

The Golden Goddess

Chapter 7

Tales of Digimon

Rika groaned and immediately put her hand to her chest. The pain caused her body to convulse and siezed maker her let out a shriek, before curling up into a small whimper. Renamon instantly tried to give her more energy, but found that she could not without breaking them from Sakuyamon. Renamon didn't know what to do as Rika tossed and turned inside of her. She longed to help, but knew it was impossible. Rika stirred as the pain rose.

Gonnah watched Sakuyamon shutter as she ate slowly, wondering exactly what was going on. As far as Renamon had told him, Rika was still asleep and in massive amounts of pain. Sakuyamon's features had just recently changed, and it appeared as if the girl had awakened based on the moans.

Gonnah hands fidgeted slightly. Now that she was awake, the mayor and everybody else would want to meet with her. He really didn't like the idea, especially after yesterday. The fact that she infused her energy into Sanshha gave a lot of people a good amount of respect for her, while many of the leaders all of a sudden viewed her in new eyes. She was no longer a gold mine, her value had just increased to owning nuclear weapons. There was no doubt about it; if she could heal then the stories would have to be true.

Gonnah heard Rika groan from inside her sphere. "Ahhhhh! I'm going to kill that stupid clown!" she snapped. Gonnah chuckled slightly at her outburst.

"Would taking some painkillers help? I don't have many, but I do have a few," Gonnah offered.

He watched as Sakuyamon glanced over at him, "I don't think it would help," Renamon tried to say, but Gonnah could only read her lips with Rika letting out another yell of frustration and pain.

"Gonnah, your needed up here!" Senna called out to his husband. The Indian man took one last glance at Sakuyamon before walking up front, wishing he could do something more to help.

Rika breathed heavily as her wound burned, but the pain finally started to become manageable before a spike of pain shot through her chest. "I hate this stupid pain!" Rika yelped, trying to find some distraction from her calamity. Her heavy breathing resumed, but this time there was no spike of death afterwards. Her breathing became slower and slower, allowing her to manage the pain better, but did nothing for the amount of it.

Gonnah waited as the mayor finished speaking. He listened closely, but already knew the answer to the questions. "You see, there is great need for her to know who I am. If she does not, it will lead to disaster."

"I understand, but you'll just have to wait a little while," Gonnah spoke to him.

One of the Brahmin behind the mayor scoffed. "This is preposterous, surely she can spare a few minutes to talk so that we may get to understand and know her. Why is it that you hold her to yourself? Are you keeping her so that you can exploit her healing abilities?" he demanded of him, with the other men around him agreeing.

Senna was sitting down at the time, but after hearing her husband slandered, she stood slowly before walking over to their guests. Her voice held a cold anger and her stature held firm. "Do you forget who you are?" Her voice chilled the air so that her breath appeared as if it breathed mist. "You are servants of our God. Do not forget that, not now, not ever again." Her snarl showed her annoyance at them. "You know that this sort of thing does not happen by chance. Our God has brought her to us for some reason to help us."

"Exactly, which is all the more reason we need to meet with her."

"Silence, you incompetent pig!" The whole group was taken back by her comment. "As a digimon, she demands your respect. As a digimon, whose very purpose is to be a messenger from God, you have no right to command her in any respect! She will come to you if she feels that you are worthy. She is the goddess, a digimon. She is not some tool of yours." Senna voice cut any defiance right out of the air.

There was a silence held for a minute, before a small shuffling was heard and small 'thunk' as metal hit wood. Another small 'thunk,' and a third as Sakuyamon walked through the doorway. The mayor smiled, thinking he won against Gonna and his wife. "Ah, I'm glad to see you our well. I am the mayor of this fine town," he said pleasantly.

Sakuyamon did not say anything, nor did she stop or even indicate that she heard him; she simply continued to walk forward, her staff hitting the ground with a sunken thud after every step. Gonna's eyes glanced to her and back to the Brahmin and the mayor wondering exactly what was going on the girls' mind. The Brahmins also looked at her curiously, but with more of an awe and respect as it was the first time that most of them had seen her up close. As Sakuyamon came to the door, they simply stepped to the side as she walked through them.

In the shadow of the doorway, her body looked almost hidden, unnoticed to the glancing passerby. Here she paused for half a second, raising her nose into the air as if she was smelling something. Almost as quickly as she had paused, her dark, hidden body stepped out into the sunlight.

The transformation seemed almost instantaneous. Her frame no longer seemed hidden in the shadows, but held a glorious brilliance to it as the afternoon sun beat down on her. Her eight foot stature was raised to its full height, no longer having a ceiling to compare too. Her armor danced the light into patterns that attracted the gaze of all who noticed. Gonna could hardly believe his eyes, but somehow, there was such a strange difference in her between now and yesterday; some sort of strength that was held inside of her.

As Sakuyamon walked, Renamon spoke to her tamer. _Rika, are you sure this is wise?_ Rika was silent as she continued to focus on her task. _Rika, do you know what you're doing?_

"_Yeah, I'm doing what Gogglehead would do_," she muttered.

Renamon was taken back, but Sakuyamon had stopped.

The group had followed Sakuyamon as she walked but a few hundred feet. She knelt on one knee and put the palm of her hand into the ground. While to the others it seemed as if she wasn't doing anything, Rika and Renamon were gaining a whole lot of information through her spirit foxes as they coursed through the ground.

Rika thought for a sec before speaking to Renamon _"Renamon. The water table is a hundred eighty feet deep here. The place where they have there well is forty. It's no wonder they don't have a closer water source."_

_Rika, I'm not sure this is a good idea, you're still recovering._

"_I'll live. Now let's see, the best spot to put the well would be…12 meters to our right and 3 up. That however would be right in the middle of a family's house. So the best spot would be...," _Rika never finished her thought to Renamon as she simply walked over to it.

Sakuyamon paused, and waited. Everyone looked one with curiosity as to what she was doing. She simply stood there for two minutes before some sort of grinding was heard. Three minutes later, three ethereal foxes of different colors burst out of the ground. It startled everyone; Sakuyamon looked back at the Brahmin. "Trust me, I didn't do this for you."

Sakuyamon flew off the ground and into the air and the very surprised Indians ran over to the hole after watching her leave. "What is this?" the mayor demanded. "What kind of thing would just randomly put a whole in the ground?"

One of the Brahmin disagreed with the mayor. "You have no right to dishonor our goddess. She has brought us a great gift. Tell me, how far away was our well? Out with the fields where we use it for our crops. She has given us a one for use of the city. Somehow, she knew what we needed and gave it to us. Who would dare say that she isn't a goddess now?"

"What did she mean then that she didn't do this for us?" one of the other Brahmins asked.

A third answered, "It means that the doctor's wife was right. She did not think us, as Brahmins were worthy of her presence. We tried too hard and forgot who was really in charge. She did this for the people of our village, not for us."

Sakuyamon did not fly far; she had simply gone to a nearby mountain top to rest. The trip had been silent between tamer and partner as they neared the top. They set down in a small grove of trees, as Rika's chest was burning furiously.

The tamer rested and mad a few grunts of pain, but the events of coming back from the dead and her previous over exhortation of energy made this really rather easy to bare. The tamer and partner rested there for thirty minutes as one, gaining their energy back. Each rested in there own thoughts until Renamon finally spoke.

_Rika, why did you do that? _

"_What do you mean why, they needed it. How many people did we not see because they were going to get water? What else was I supposed to do?" _Rika said distantly.

_Rika?_

"_Hmm?"_

"_What are you thinking?"_

The wind gave a nice gentle breeze through the top of hills as she lay in a grove. Why did she do that? What was going on her through her mind? The forest merely replied with its normal jungle sounds, leaving Rika to have no answer.

"_Why do people do anything?"_

_Hmmm?_

"_Why did I do that? Maybe because I was being stupid, but you saw them. What else was I supposed to do?"_

_Then why did you run?_ Renamon's voice held her usual questioning tone whenever she wondered about philosophical questions.

Rika paused, "_I, I... I didn't want to…to cause any trouble. You saw them, they were all looking for a piece of my power. They thought I was a freaking goddess. I had to get out of there, I couldn't let Gonna and Senna get hurt because of me. They saved my life, I don't know what would have happened if it hadn't been for them. I couldn't let them deal with my problems anymore."_

_Then what do we do now?_

"_Now? We'll go back for dinner to Gonna and Senna, borrow a computer and let Takato, mother and everyone else know that I'm fine. Then were going to go and look for Guilmon," _Rika told her partner calmly.

Renamon paused, noticing the mention of Takato for the third time that day. _And what of the Wolf?_

"_Yamaki will dig something up, but finding Guilmon will be our priority for now."_

The two were mostly silent for the next few hours, they made an occasional chit chat, but for the most part, Rika slept and Renamon watched for any potential threats. The evening wind had just started to come upon them when Rika was finally feeling decent. They flew down cautiously to the village, making sure to stay out of sight as they went. When Senna and Gonna saw her, they met her openly and gladly.

The three/four of them sat down to eat. "Tell me, what are you going to do now?" Gonna asked her with a curiosity Rika didn't see in many people. "The Brahmins are going nuts, devoting themselves to there religion even more then ever before and there are already extensive plans to make this new well you gave us a shrine. It's amazing! The entire village has been talking abuzz with you; first the poison and then the well. There's no fear at all though, everyone is claiming that you touched them or that you gave them something. We were invited over to at least eight different families houses in order to tell them all about you, and Senna was going to accept one of there offers, but I insisted on eating here incase you came back for anything. I mean, we didn't think you did, but you left in such a hurry, and see, here you are."

Senna blushed at his comments. "Dear, you are overdoing it. You're embarrassing us."

Rika smiled at the couple, "Momenti..." She muttered quietly.

"Hmm?" Gonna asked, all ears to her.

"It's nothing... I just wanted to thank you for all of this. You've been so helpful to me," Rika told them.

"Think nothing of it," Senna told her. "We have enjoyed your stay and Gonna has learned many wondrous things from Renamon. Now, do tell us, what will become of you now? Do you feel rested enough to travel all the way back to Japan?"

Sakuyamon shook her head as she spook in both voices. "No, I do not. There is a friend in the vicinity that I need to find. The faster I find him, the better."

"Is it the Red Dragon?" Gonnah asked with his same energy. "I saw him fly overhead; flying just a little bit south of due east. Fast, but an amazing thing though. I take it he's a digimon. Well of course he's a digimon, what else could he possibly be?"

"Dear!" Senna scolded her husband, "stop being rude, she is our prized guest."

The three paused as they heard a truck drive up outside. "Over here, see, this is the well she dug. And over there, that's, the house of the doctor who took care of her."

There was a rough grunt of a thank you. Senna and Gonnah looked at her. "Go. Now!"

Gonnah quickly moved to the door, and gasped. The truck was an army transport truck, and there were some twenty soldiers. He got a hold of himself. "Hello, officer, may I help you?" he asked.

"Yes, I'd like to know some things about that digimon you held here. I know this will be a problem, but that creature…"

"Sakuyamon," Gonna corrected him.

The officer blew him off. "That creature may have had some sort of disease with it. They are known for it and we'll have to take you to the capitol to get you tested." He glanced over at the men as they started to yell something.

"There it is, don't lose it!" came the cry as the men fired their tranquilizer bullets. They merely bounced off of Sakuyamon's armor as she leapt into the air. Gonnah gave one look in her direction.

"Good luck," he muttered under his breath, before giving the officer a very coy and satisfied smile.

-

-

-

Riley typed in the numbers at the computer at Hypnos with Yamaki looking over shoulder. His lighter clicked time and time again. "That should do it," she told him.

Yamaki glanced through it and nodded,."Well done. Almost as good as if I had programmed it."

"Oh, and what's that supposed to mean?" Riley demanded putting her hands on her hips.

"That you're pretty when you're angry?" Yamaki asked questioningly. There was a thud as Tally tripped over a painted line at hearing him say that.

"Appeasement doesn't fit you well," Riley told him. Yamaki smiled, before picking up the phone as the light went off.

"Alright," he said into it, before hanging up looked at Riley. "Finished it in the nick of time," he told her.

Riley cocked her head curiously, before hearing a large door open. Several men wearing ties and suits barged in. "Yamaki Mitsuo…" The man started out.

"You are under arrest for treason of the highest degree, having dealt with terrorists and allowed an enemy country to get a hold of a biological weapon of mass destruction. Am I right?" Yamaki said, mocking the man.

"Not bad, Mitsuo, but exactly how did you know?" the man asked.

Yamaki clicked his lighter, "Simple, you're not the only one with ears. China has just declared war against India, and they hardly have any of their troops mobilized. It doesn't take a genius to figure out exactly what they are banking on to win them the war. Now, somebody has to take the fall and it's just convenient enough that I was the one who made the deal with the Yakuza to have Takato kidnapped, leading to the capture of Lopmon, Yamashowzu, I would suggest you not be so surprised over the easy stuff."

"Don't worry, I know every trick of yours in the book, Yamaki. You don't have something that I don't know."

-

-

-

Rapidmon flew his metallic tail off to get away from the city as humanly possible while still carrying Henry and Suzie. He faulted for a second, glancing around and dropping to the ground. "Rapidmon?" Henry asked.

Suzie looked at the green dog before nodding her cute little head. "We haven't run into any opposition, Henry. Why?"

Henry looked at his sister. "Us leaving should have tipped them off, so that doesn't make sense. You're right, Rapidmon."

"Don't worry about me, Henry," he told his friend, hitting him on the back playfully. "I'll take care of anything that comes after us."

"Try not to kill anybody," Henry said with venom in his voice.

The comment stripped Rapidmon of all playfulness as he eyed his tamer seriously. There was a definite exchanging of emotions between there eyes before Rapidmon flew into the air.

"Henry," Suzie said firmly.

"Not now, Suzie," Henry said looking for a place with cover.

"No, Henry. You can't keep this up," Suzie scolded him. "Ever since that mistake during the rescue you haven't been able to let him live it down. Why don't you momenti and move on. Don't you think that he's suffered enough pain and guilt from that without you snapping down his throat every other minute?"

"You don't understand, Suzie," Henry told her with a small bit of anger in his voice.

"No, it's you who doesn't understand. What happens when Terriermon gets himself killed because he's trying not to?" Suzie told her brother firmly, before glancing down at the ground. "You don't understand what it's like to have your partner stripped from you."

Henry spied an overhanging of brush and paused for a second before moving towards it. Suzie sighed before following him.

Rapidmon hung in the air watching everything that was around him, when Hideto's voice over the ham radio again, this time with a little bit of static. "Two F22's are coming after you. They'll be within range of your missiles within two minutes, you already in range of there's."

"Wait, aren't F22's those really fast planes?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Aw, cra,." Rapidmon muttered, before firing to counter missiles as the four streaking towards him. They hit the in air and erupted into flames.


End file.
